


Through a Glass, Darkly

by Adorable Blondes (Chloe), bansheequeen (queenbanshee), xtremeroswellian



Category: Chlollie - Fandom, Smallville
Genre: Chlollie, F/M, Through a Glass Darkly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-07
Updated: 2010-01-29
Packaged: 2017-11-23 10:22:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 32,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/621067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chloe/pseuds/Adorable%20Blondes, https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenbanshee/pseuds/bansheequeen, https://archiveofourown.org/users/xtremeroswellian/pseuds/xtremeroswellian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff"><p>There's some Clark bashing in this chapter. Just fyi.</p></blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Title: Through a Glass, Darkly  
Rated: R  
Authors: [](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/profile)[**dl_greenarrow**](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/) and [](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/)**chloeas**  
Spoilers: Up for and including all of Pandora from season 9, though this is very, very AU.  
Pairing: Chloe/Oliver.

Through a Glass, Darkly (Prologue)

It was almost over.

Whatever that meant.

At that point, one way or the other, as long as they got the yellow sun shining again, she didn't care how it ended as long as it ended. It had been a long year, a long year of fighting the soldiers of Zod, a long year of living like rats, underground, hiding, surviving any way they could, but above all, _resisting_. For their world. Because even though Clark had abandoned them, Lois had been gone, Jimmy was dead, she knew that somehow, they could still stop Zod and stop the Kandorians as long as they fought back.

Finding Oliver again had given her more hope, a group of Kandorian soldiers had been about to enslave humans and Chloe, along with a couple of others that she had already managed to recruit, had stopped them. It was the first time she had tried kryptonite bullets on Kandorians, an idea she borrowed from a guy from High School, the problem was that most of her men were not incredibly familiar with guns, but they had managed to free the fifteen humans that were being held captive by Zod's man. To her surprise, one of them had been none other than Oliver himself.

It was only ten months ago, but it felt like ages. Having him fighting by her side, helping her recruit, training the team not only in archery, but how to fight and how to protect themselves, she had no doubt they wouldn't have made it this far without his help.

Chloe watched as Clark and Lois left the room, she still didn't want to trust Clark, he had turned his back on everyone, even when she and Oliver went after him, after he lost his powers, to try and have him help them, but soon, it wouldn't matter anymore, the yellow sun would rise and Earth would have Clark to protect them again, and the humans that were left would rid Earth of the Kandorians and help get their planet back to its feet.

Folding the maps, she glanced at Oliver, "I hope he doesn't turn his back on us again."

"That makes two of us," he responded, exhaling slowly. He was silent for a long moment, then he moved to her side, helping her finish folding the maps and tucking them away safely. He could only hope they wouldn't need them again. He could only hope that after tomorrow, everything would be turned around and they would be free. But it seemed like nothing tended to go their way.

Mercy was dead.

His brain still hadn't fully absorbed that. Some part of him knew that she'd brought it on herself. That Chloe had done what he'd been unable to do because of what she'd meant to him. It still left him feeling empty and cold. If he dwelt on it long, he wasn't sure he'd be able to focus on anything else.

Instead, he reached out and laid a hand on her arm. "We've done all we can for the night."

"We'll leave the others here tomorrow, if we don't succeed, I want William and Sophia to go in, they know about the Watchtower and maybe they can get it to work, I will tell them about the plan before we leave." She told him firmly, they needed a back-up plan, there was no telling what would happen, if they couldn't make it to the Watchtower, someone else had to.

He nodded slightly in agreement. They'd learned in the last ten months that they always needed a back-up plan, and they always operated with one in place. "All right."

With a deep sigh, she nodded, looking at him for a second then reaching to unbuckle her belt as she started towards their room, for the night, she wasn't their leader anymore, all of her men and women were resting, everyone was underground and their headquarters were surrounded by kryptonite, for now, they were safe and she could just be Chloe. Or what was left of her.

"It can end tomorrow," she said quietly once they were inside, no one would bother them in there unless there was an emergency, this was the only place she allowed herself to just _be_ , she didn't have to be reassuring or strong, she could be afraid and have doubts and wonder if they would be alive to see another day.

Wordlessly he moved up behind her, sliding his arms around her waist and pressing a soft kiss to the back of her head. He shut his eyes. "Here's hoping," he said just as quietly.

Carefully, she let the belt that held her weapons slide to the floor and leaned back into him, closing her eyes and sighing deeply. They kept their relationship a secret and even if one of their men suspected it, no one had said anything. It was the only comfort they had, to know that they had both survived another day and that they were still together, and they didn't want to share that with anyone.

After a moment, she turned in his arms, looking up at him, "we will still have a lot of work to do when it ends."

He nodded slightly, gazing down at her. "One step at a time," he reminded her quietly, lifting a hand to her face and gently brushing a kiss to her forehead. He shut his eyes and leaned his head against hers for a long moment. "Right now it's just us." It was something he said to her every night, part of their secret, private ritual. The first night he'd said it to her was the first night they'd made love. He'd never been great with words, but it was the one thing he said that somehow always managed to calm her mind a bit.

It always worked, Oliver was the only link she had to normalcy, the only connection to life before Zod, the only person who knew who she really was and who saw her as more than the leader, he knew all of her and that phrase meant that she could be all of it, that he was there and no one else. With a slightly nod, she lifted her hand cup his face as she watched him, she didn't know what was going to happen when it was finally over, but she had the feeling _this_ , them, it wasn't going to change anymore. They had survived hell together, there wasn't much that could be stronger than the connection they shared.

"Just us," she whispered, finally closing her eyes too, it was also part of their ritual, the reassurance that he was there with her, and she was there with him and for the time being, they didn't have to worry about anything or anyone else. It was a nice lie to hold on to, one they needed to survive day after day. That one moment of peace when they were alone.

He dipped his head and kissed her softly on the lips, one hand tangling gently in her hair. "Just us," he echoed, his voice barely audible.

Chloe lifted a hand to his shoulder then, on her tip toes, leaned closer to kiss him again, slowly, gently, the thoughts of Zod, Clark and even Lois disappearing from her mind, all she could think of, all she wanted to focus on was the man standing there with her, because he was the one person she was confident would never turn his back on her, would never disappoint her.

Oliver pulled her closer to him, deepening the kiss even as he walked them backwards toward the mattress on the floor. He needed this time with her, needed her more tonight than he ever had because tomorrow it would all be over one way or another. There was little doubt in his mind about that. "Chloe," he murmured. "If something happens to me, I need you to know--"

Her chest tightened at his words and she held her breath, keeping her eyes closed and tightening her hold on him, "I know." She whispered before opening her eyes and looking up at him, her gaze holding his intensely, "I know." She repeated.

He held her gaze just as intensely, nodding slightly before lowering her down onto the mattress and covering her body with his own.

They hadn't said the words, in fact, they didn't talk much at all when they were alone. There wasn't much to say and words didn't mean nearly as much as having each others' arms to fall asleep in. She knew it, he knew it. That was enough. There was no telling when they were going to lose each other, with the lives they led, it wasn't a matter of 'if', it was a matter of 'when', so they made the best of the time they had left, when they could.

This time, however, there was something she needed to talk to him about, something that had just occurred to her "wait," she whispered, waiting for him to look at her and looking up at him. Reluctantly and gently, she slid from under him and sat up, if she had to give him orders, she couldn't do it with him laying on top of her, and if this happened, he had to follow through with the plan that was just starting to form in her brain.

Whatever it was, was obviously serious given the look on her face. He sat up, as well, quiet and studying her intently. "What is it?"

"The ring," she told him, turning to face him, "Oliver, if we fail tomorrow, if we can't hack the towers, we still have the ring and no matter what happens, one of us needs to take it from Zod, we can go back in time, change things," she paused, holding his gaze, "maybe even stop this whole thing from happening."

He swallowed hard, then nodded slowly. "All right. Then that's our Plan C."

After watching him for a moment, she took a deep breath, her expression became more determined as she knew the next part of the conversation was going to be much harder, "if we try to hack it and we don't succeed, they will notice and they will come right to us, if something happens, Oliver," she said firmly, "if _anything_ happens, I don't want you to stop, I want you to keep going, I want you to focus on finding Zod and finding the ring, don't waste time with things that could only get you killed."

Chloe had been doing this long enough to know that Zod and the others knew she was the one behind the resistance, there were groups all over the world, but unlike most of them, she knew exactly what was happening and knew exactly how to fight it, and although she did her best to spread the information, it wasn't easy to do. Either way, she knew she had a bright red target on her forehead, she had had it for months and killing Tess, the only human Zod trusted, only made it worse, she had no doubt of that. But an attempt on the towers, to try and take away the powers from every single one of the Kandorians that walked the Earth, she didn't expect to make it for longer than a couple of minutes. The second they knew someone had tried to, or someone had successfully hacked their towers, she had no doubt they would be coming for her.

The words seared through him like she'd shot _him_ with one of the arrows and he stood up abruptly, moving away from her, and away from what was laughingly called a bed. He rubbed his hands over his face. She'd asked a lot of things from him over the last few months, and he'd done as she'd asked with no hesitation at all--ever. No matter what the circumstances had been, he'd followed her directions, taken her orders. But this? What she was asking? It was too much to think about right then. He shut his eyes, his shoulders slumped a little. "Chloe..."

"No, Oliver," she stood up too, she knew it was a lot to ask, too much even, she didn't know if _she_ could turn her back on him if he was injured, but this wasn't about saving themselves, it was about saving their world, and they were two of the very few people who had a chance of actually doing it, "no matter what happens, you have to keep going. If the red sun is still up, you have to keep fighting, do you understand?" Her voice was firm, the thought of leaving him behind made her stomach clench, but she had to think as a leader, not a lover.

He kept his eyes closed for a moment, knowing she was right, no matter how much he hated it. It wasn't about them. It had never been about them. "I know," he said quietly, slowly turning to face her. His gaze was intense. "And I know you'll do the same if it's the other way around."

Holding her breath and his gaze, Chloe nodded shortly, "what needs to be done, that's all that matters." Or it was what they had to keep telling themselves in order to keep going.

Oliver didn't want to talk anymore. Instead, he reached out and hauled her against him, kissing her urgently. Tomorrow may be damned before they ever saw it, but tonight, at that moment, they were together. And that was all that mattered right then.

Relieved, she wrapped her arms tightly around him, clinging to him as much as she could, that could be the last time they were together, the last time they were in each others' arms, they last time they made love. Made love because they knew they loved each other, that this was as close to happiness as they would get.

When he laid them down on the mattress again, she wrapped her legs around him, pretending for one last night that each other was all they had to worry about.


	2. Chapter 2

Title: Through a Glass, Darkly  
Rated: R  
Authors: [](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/profile)[**dl_greenarrow**](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/) and [](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/profile)**chloeas**  
Spoilers: Up for and including all of Pandora from season 9, though this is very, very AU.  
Pairing: Chloe/Oliver.

He woke up in an alley.  
  
His clothes were dirty, torn, blood-stained.  
  
He was so cold it was like he had died and somehow was waking up from it.  
  
Shuddering, he slowly sat up, his muscles aching even as he looked upward. At the yellow sun. A pained gasp escaped him and he shuddered again, forcing himself to his feet. It took him several long moments to orient himself and when he finally did, he realized he was outside of Watchtower. Swallowing hard, he looked down at the ring clutched tightly in his fist.  
  
Every step he took toward the familiar building was filled with memories.  
  
And pain.  
  
Oliver stumbled into the elevator, slumping against the wall and shutting his eyes as he waited.  
  
Chloe heard the elevator and waited, waited for someone to come into the Watchtower, but when no one came, she quietly grabbed her gun and made her way out to the hall, her heart beating fast against her chest as she walked towards the elevator.  
  
The first thing she saw were legs, her eyes widened when she noticed the material of the person's pants was not only ripped, but also covered in blood so she moved towards the elevator quicker, her heart skipping a beat when they fell on Oliver and she gasped, walking into the elevator, she knelt down besides him, he was hurt. Badly.  
  
"Oliver, can you hear me?" His eyes were closed, she hadn't seen him since Jimmy's funeral and she had no idea where he'd been or what kind of trouble he had gotten himself into. Without waiting for a response, she placed her gun on the floor and reached under his arms as carefully as she could to pull him out of the elevator.  
  
A quiet groan escaped him and without thinking about it, he tightened his arms around her. "Chloe," he murmured.  
  
Her eyes widened at his reaction, although he was hurt, he was still strong, so when he wrapped his arms around her, she had no choice but to lean over him, "it's okay, I got you." She wrapped an arm awkwardly around him, watching him as well as she could. He must have hit his head pretty hard amongst all other injuries.  
  
He shuddered as she somehow managed to get him to his feet once more and he leaned heavily on her as she guided him across the room and over to the couch. He collapsed onto it, his eyes opening and then closing a few times as he tried to catch his breath. There was a sharp, stabbing pain in his gut and he swallowed hard, coughing as he reached down to try and figure out why it was hurting so badly.  
  
It wasn't until he reached down that she noticed the wound in his abdomen, blood was gushing from it, "don't move," she told him before hurrying to the phone and calling Dr. Hamilton, hanging up seconds later and moving to Oliver's side again, pressing a towel lightly over the wound to stop the bleeding.  
  
"Dr. Hamilton is on his way, you'll be okay, just stay with me."  
  
The pain that shot through him from the pressure of the towel made him arch his back, a hiss escaping him. "Christ."  
  
"I'm sorry, but we need to stop the bleeding," she told him quietly, wondering what could possibly have been so bad to attack him like this, she had no idea where Oliver had been at all, she had tried to find him even as she looked for Lois, but hadn't been able to, all she knew was that he had withdrawn a large sum of money and was living off of cash, clearly, he didn't want to be tracked down.  
  
"I'm sorry," he whispered wearily, opening his eyes long enough to look at her, even as consciousness began to drain out of him. "I'm so sorry."  
  
With wide eyes, she shook her head, kneeling down on the floor next to the couch and shaking her head, "it's okay, Oliver, whatever it is, it's okay, you'll be okay, there is nothing to apologize for, you'll be fine."  
  
He wouldn't be fine. But it didn't matter. All that mattered was the mission at hand.  
  
Saving her life.  
  
And with that thought, his eyes drifted shut as the darkness overtook him.  
  
*****  
  
Dr. Hamilton had left about an hour ago and although he had assured Chloe that Oliver would be okay, she couldn't help but be worried, he had lost a lot of blood and he had injuries all over his body, not to mention the fact that, for whatever reason, she had found the Legion ring in his hand, and he had been holding on to it with a very firm grip because it had marked his skin perfectly.  
  
It wasn't until she heard him grunting as he started to wake up that she allowed herself to relax a little, that was a good start.  
  
Everything was red. Everything was always red, but this time there was red all over his hands, staining his uniform. And everything hurt, most of all his heart, as he struggled toward consciousness. His chest was tight, filled with pain, fear, loss. "Don't," he muttered, trying to open his eyes.  
  
"Oliver?" She called quietly, kneeling down by the couch once more, "it's okay, you'll be okay."  
  
His heart skipped at the sound of that voice. Her voice. He relaxed almost instantly. She was all right. It had all been a nightmare. A faint smile touched his lips. "Chloe."  
  
"Don't try to move, you have stitches," her voice was quiet as she watched him, he looked like he had been in some kind of fight and had been stabbed, luckily, it wasn't a fatal wound.  
  
His eyebrows furrowed at that. "Stitches?" he murmured uncertainly. He struggled once more to open his eyes and when he did so, he blinked rapidly, trying to clear his vision. It only took him a moment to realize he was in the Watchtower. "We made it."  
  
Chloe watched as he looked around and it was her turn to give him a confused look, "we made it?"  
  
Despite how much pain he was in, her confusion was clear, and his chest tightened once more. He held his breath as realization slammed into him with the force of a mack truck, and tears sprang to his eyes. He shut them quickly, pressing a hand to his face as the pain threatened to swallow him whole.  
  
Her eyes widened when she thought she saw tears in his eyes and she was suddenly a lot more worried than before, leaning closer to him, she placed a hand carefully on his arm, "Oliver, whatever it is, it's gonna be fine."  
  
He forced himself to draw in a deep, albeit ragged breath. He pressed his free hand to the spot that was aching in his gut, and he grimaced as he forced himself to sit up. He opened his eyes, one single tear making its way down his dirty face.  
  
Frowning, she watched him, of course he wouldn't listen when she told him not to move, it was Oliver after all. But something seemed to be very wrong if he was, in fact, crying.  
  
Carefully, she moved to sit down next to him, doing her best not to move the couch much, "Oliver, what happened?" Her voice was quiet.  
  
He turned his head to look at her, his gaze intense. Resolute. "I need your help."  
  
"What do you need?"  
  
Oliver drew in a breath and let it out slowly. "I need you to help me save your life."  
  
With eyes even wider, if it was possible, she just stared at him for a long moment, she would have questioned him if it wasn't for the reaction he was having earlier and the fact that he looked like he was in pain, pain that was more than just the physical pain that he obviously felt.  
  
"What are you talking about?" She asked as calmly as she could.  
  
"I'm not your Oliver," he told her quietly. But that was a lie, wasn't it? He was her Oliver. She just didn't know it. She might never know it. But it didn't matter. All that mattered was keeping her alive.  
  
" _My_ Oliver?" She echoed, confused, "what do you mean? I haven't seen you in a while, I tried finding you, but you chose to vanish so I haven't been able to track you down."  
  
He shook his head a little, moving so he was right in front of her. "I'm not the Oliver you know. I'm not from this time, Chloe." He was silent for a moment, searching her eyes.  
  
At his words, everything seemed to click together, the legion ring, him not being 'her' Oliver, "where are you from?" She asked carefully.  
  
"What year is it?" he asked tiredly, rubbing the back of his neck. He'd lost track of time over the last few months because time hadn't seemed to matter. All that had mattered was survival.  
  
"October 2009."  
  
He swallowed hard. Only a few short months after Jimmy Olsen's funeral. When the whole mess had begun. "2010," he answered. "A year from now."  
  
Chloe watched him for a moment, whatever it was that happened a year from now, it wasn't good, not only was Oliver incredibly hurt, but overall, he just didn't look like the Oliver she knew, he was thinner, he looked tired, older, "did you get hurt in the future?"  
  
If it was possible to be hurt and helped by seeing one person, that was exactly how he felt looking at Chloe right then. She looked different from how he remembered her, as well. He'd tried over the past few months to remember what she'd been like, what she'd looked like, before the world had gone to hell, but he hadn't been able to. And now here she was, that person he'd tried to recall for so long. It was jarring. But it gave him hope, no matter how bad it hurt to look at her. "You could say that." If having your heart metaphorically ripped out of your chest could be considered hurt, anyway.  
  
"And what happened?" She had the feeling that was not going to be a question for him to answer.   
  
He turned away from her, resting a hand against his stomach and looking around the Watchtower. Everything was so familiar, but so different at the same time. Or maybe it was all in his head. "It doesn't matter. Because I'm going to stop it from happening." His voice was quiet, but determined. "Where's Clark?"  
  
Well, the question he was asking him wasn't any easier to answer, shrugging slightly, she shifted on her seat, "he's not here."  
  
"Did he take off? Vanish?" he asked, turning to look at her once more.  
  
"He's doing what he thinks is best," she told him, glancing at him sideways, "he's still helping people, but according to him, he's not Clark anymore, he's just the Blur." And as much as she hated to admit it, it hurt to even think that, she didn't know if Clark was ever going to get back to the way he was, but for now, it didn't seem likely.  
  
"Then I need to track him down. Can you help me do that?"  
  
"I'll help you," she assured him, "but you can't expect me to walk blindly through this, Oliver, I need to know what is happening."  
  
She sounded so much like his Chloe right then it nearly took his breath away. He was so used to her being the one in charge, taking the lead, he wasn't even entirely sure how to do it himself anymore. He drew in a breath and let it out slowly, nodding slightly. "I'll tell you everything you need to know." And the things she didn't need to know--he wouldn't have to tell her about that.  
  
It didn't take a genius to figure out what he meant by that, but she wasn't going to pressure him, not unless she felt like whatever it was that he was choosing to keep from her was actually important for her to know.  
  
"Where do we begin?" She asked as she sat up, eyes on him.  
  
"We find Clark. And we reunite him with Lois."  
  
At that, her face fell and her chest tightened. With a shake of her head, she looked away from him for the first time since she had sat down, "Lois is missing, Oliver."  
  
"Not anymore," he told her, shaking his head, as well. "I brought her back with me."  
  
After watching him for a moment, she stood up, trying to process the information he had just given her. All the time she had spent looking for Lois, she knew her cousin was alive, she just didn't know how or where, but something told her she was okay.  
  
"Lois was in the future?" She asked carefully, not wanting to allow herself to overreact to the information, "and you brought her back but..." with a pause, she frowned and stopped in front of him to look at him, "where is she?"  
  
He paused at that. "I don't know. But she was definitely with me when I made the trip back. She just showed up there a couple days ago. She had the ring with her."  
  
With wide eyes, she nodded, still for a second before turning around and starting towards the computers, "we need to find her." Glancing over her shoulder, she frowned at Oliver, "was she hurt?"  
  
"She was fine," he said quietly, not meeting her eyes. He'd been relieved to see that Lois was alive, and glad that she was unharmed, of course. But part of him couldn't help but resent that she'd survived when...  
  
Oliver shook his head a little, not allowing his thoughts to go there. "She was fine," he said again, his eyes distant.  
  
Chloe watched him for a second, trying to read all the different emotions that were flickering on his face but just nodded, turning back to the screen, "I'll check all the hospitals anyway, just in case. If she's not there, I can try the farm and the Talon."  
  
He shuddered involuntarily at the mention of the farm. His last memories of it were of a prison holding humans as slaves. "Okay," he whispered, running a hand over his face.  
  
She hadn't even finished typing her cousin's information on the search engine when he phone rang, quickly, she reached for it and answered it, "yes, this is she." A pause as the woman spoke and her heart started beating faster against her chest, "is she okay? Okay. I'm on my way."  
  
With wide eyes, she turned to Oliver, "Lois is at Metropolis General, I need to go pick her up."  
  
Oliver nodded slightly, meeting her eyes for a moment. "All right. Go on. I'll uh...I'll work on finding Clark."  
  
Frowning, she looked at him, "stay here, you shouldn't be walking around, you have a pretty deep cut." Even as she spoke, she started gathering her things, "I'll be back as soon as possible."  
  
He watched her go, and while his instincts were to do as she said, he wasn't going to. There wasn't time. There was work to be done.  
  
It didn't matter what happened to him in the long run.  
  
Because he wasn't part of this world anyway.

 


	3. Through a Glass, Darkly

Title: Through a Glass, Darkly  
Rated: PG-13  
Authors: [](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/profile)[**dl_greenarrow**](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/) and [](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/profile)[**chloeas**](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/)  
Spoilers: Up for and including all of Pandora from season 9, though this is very, very AU.  
Pairing: Chloe/Oliver.

[Prologue](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/366281.html) | [Part One](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/369460.html)

Through a Glass, Darkly (Two)

As she made her way back to the Watchtower, her head was spinning. She had managed to drop Lois off at the apartment above the Talon and had promised to come by later. Lois was fine, freaked out, but fine and apparently none other than Clark Kent himself had helped her make her way to the hospital. Of course, Lois didn't know that, all that she knew was that she had been rescued by the Blur from, according to her cousin, 'an angry ninja chick' had come after her but the Blur had stopped the woman.

But as soon as she stepped inside and saw, what looked like to be an empty Watchtower, she stopped thinking about everything that had been going on with her cousin, "Oliver?" She called as she looked around, rushing up the stairs, checking the bathroom and every corner of the room, she sighed deeply and shook her head, "Goddamnit, Oliver." She should have known he was going to do that.

Oliver had spent the past three hours scouring the city for any sign of Clark Kent or 'The Blur.' And all to no avail, which didn't make him happy. He didn't know how much time he had to get things turned around. He wasn't sure that Lois being back in her right timeline was going to be enough to save the world. To save Chloe. There were too many other unknown factors. He would have to deal with all of them. He _would_ deal with all of them. That was his plan B. But right now, he was too exhausted to do much more. He needed something to eat, and a place to crash for at least an hour. Just one hour and he'd be set again.

Making his way back into Watchtower, he was slightly surprised to find Chloe had already returned. "Did you find her?"

"Where _were_ you?" She was by his side the second he walked through the door, a hand holding on to his arm at a place she knew he wasn't hurt and started walking him towards the couch, "you are really hurt, Oliver, you need to rest. You're asking me to help you, but there is only so much I can do if you're trying to get yourself killed."

She frowned up at him, "Where were you anyway?"

He closed his eyes as he slumped onto the sofa tiredly. "I was looking for Clark," he admitted, letting out a breath.

Chloe looked down at him, "he was the one who took Lois to the hospital," she told him, frowning still because regardless of the fact that he was there, she still had asked him to stay and he hadn't, he could have injured himself even more. But clearly, he wasn't going to listen to her until they managed to find Clark, "or the Blur did, anyway."

At that, he sat up quickly, opening his eyes once more. "Did you see him?" he asked immediately.

"He was gone by the time I got there, apparently some woman tried to attack Lois and he stopped her, took Lois to the hospital and took off, Lois didn't even know it was Clark that took her there. Just that the Blur had saved her." She told him, watching him as she did.

His eyebrows furrowed. "Some woman attacked Lois?" He shook his head in confusion.

With a frown, Chloe nodded, she wasn't sure how to best explain this, but figured it was best to just repeat the words her cousin had used, "according to her, a 'crazy ninja chick' attacked her in the train Lois woke up in. She has no memory of who the woman is or how she ended up in the train, but she remembers the woman had dog tags on."

All the air leaves his lungs, his face growing pale. "Alia," he whispered, adrenaline firing through him as he rises to his feet. " _Shit._ "

" _What_?" She demanded, stepping in front of him and staring up at him, "you need to start giving me some answers Oliver, this is starting to get frustrating."

"I will," he promised, putting his hands on her shoulders without thinking about it. "But right now I need you to listen to me. Do you have any kryptonite around here?"

Chloe frowned up at him and nodded, looking towards the desk, "In a box, in the bottom drawer, why?"

He moved over to the desk, grimacing as he knelt down to open the door, the movement pulling at his stitches. "She's a Kandorian," he told her, his voice hushed. He grabbed the box and rose to his feet once more, moving over to her, opening it and pulling out the rock. He pressed it into her hand. "Stay here. And don't let go of this for any reason. Promise me."

Blinking, she looked down at the rock then back at him, frowning, "no." With a shake of her head, she met his gaze, "I'm not doing anything else or making any promises until you give me some answers."

"Chloe, we don't have time," he said urgently. "She's out there right now, doing who knows what to God knows who." Though frankly, he didn't much care about the latter as long as Chloe was safe. "I need you to trust me."

"Who is she? What does she want? What is a Kandorian? And what are you planning on doing? Going after her yourself? You're _hurt_ , Oliver."

Despite the very real fear he felt at knowing Alia was out there somewhere, a faint smile touched his lips. Now he was starting to remember who she'd been before the world had been painted red. "Kandor is a part of Krypton. That's why the meteor rock will keep her away. And yes, I'm going after her myself." Without waiting for further questions, he turned and headed for the elevator.

She had to do her best to stop herself from shooting another twenty questions at him, at least she had gotten some answers, it was a start.

"If you are going somewhere, I'm coming with you," she said firmly, following him, the rock tightly in her hand, "especially if she's a Kryptonian, Oliver, you can't take her by yourself."

He quickly turned to face her, shaking his head. "No, you are absolutely _not_ coming with me," he said fiercely. He pulled a small tube from the belt of his Green Arrow uniform and opened it, revealing a knife made of Kryptonite. "And you'd be surprised what I can do."

Her eyes widened at the sight of the bright green blade, her stomach tightening, she didn't know what Oliver had been through, but if he was prepared to fight Kryptonians the way he seemed to be, it wasn't good.

With a deep breath, she made a quick decision and just nodded, holding his gaze, "just be careful."

"I will," he promised, holding her gaze a moment longer before stepping onto the elevator and pressing the button for the ground floor.

Alia had to be stopped.

And he was damn sure going to be the one to stop her.


	4. Through a Glass, Darkly

Title: Through a Glass, Darkly  
Rated: PG-13  
Authors: [](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/profile)[**dl_greenarrow**](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/) and [](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/profile)[**chloeas**](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/)  
Spoilers: Up for and including all of Pandora from season 9, though this is very, very AU.  
Pairing: Chloe/Oliver.

[Prologue](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/366281.html) | [Chapter One](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/369460.html) | [Chapter Two](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/370747.html)

It wouldn't be hard to track her down.

She wasn't exactly known for her discretion, nor for her respect for human life. If someone got in her way, she'd simply kill them. It was what she did. It was what Zod kept her around for.

They had all been afraid of her. Of all of the Kandorian's, she was by far, after Zod at least, the most cruel and sadistic of the bunch.

Oliver's grip tightened on the knife in his hand as he made his way down the darkened streets of Metropolis, his body tense and prepared for battle despite his injuries. _You have to keep fighting_.

He could hear her words in his mind as clearly as if she were there with him, talking to him.

"I am," he whispered. "I promise." Determination fueling him, he paused as something caused the hair on the back of his neck to stand up. He turned slowly and spotted her in the alley, sword in hand.

His eyes narrowed and darkened with hatred.

Alia didn't step closer, she just stared at him, holding her sword firmly in her hand and just waited. Her orders had been to kill both of them and she wasn't going to fail Zod. That was why she had followed him, just one of the humans capable for destroying the towers that her people had put so much effort into building. Those filthy insignificant humans and their constant need to get in the way. If only the Major had listened to her. Enslaving them was a mistake, it was better to just get rid of them or they would _always_ stand on their way.

But not this one. He had caused enough damage as it was.

Without hesitation, Oliver unsheathed the knife he carried, stalking down the alley and toward her, his gaze locking momentarily on her sword. The sword she'd used to--

His eyes darkened even more even as he let go of that thought. He couldn't change what happened in the future, but he could damn sure change what happened in the present and make sure that future never existed.

Lifting her sword, she smirked at him, turning it slightly, there was still blood on it and slowly, she lifted a gloved hand and wiped the blade between her thumb and index finger, "you're making it so much easier to me, coming to find me like this." The kryptonite of the blade was already making her stomach turn, but he was far enough that if she moved fast, she still had a shot.

"I'm glad you followed me," he said darkly, gripping the knife a little more tightly in his hand. He held it up, extending it out toward her, fully aware of the effects it would have on her the closer he got to her.

Chloe was barely able to breathe. Oliver, even though he was injured, managed to move at least five times faster than she could. If she hadn't been secretly following him, she would have yelled for him to slow down, but as it was, she had to do her best to keep up.

But she had made it, she was finally just a few feet from him and the woman that, she was surprised to find out, her cousin had seemingly accurately described as the 'crazy ninja chick'.

With the kryptonite still in her hand, she moved closer, leaning against one of the walls and peering into the alley, watching Oliver's back and what she could see of the woman, seeing the sword in her hand, she wondered if said ninja chick had been the one responsible for Oliver's wounds and she stood up straighter, if he needed back up, she would do the best she could.

While Alia noticed the movement by the end of the alley, it didn't bother her, she took a step back and shook her head at Oliver, "you think a blade that size will do enough damage? I will have your head before you can get close enough to me to hurt me."

That was where she was dead wrong. Without warning, he hurled the knife at her, watching as it imbedded itself into her stomach. Lifting his head a little, he stalked toward her as she stumbled backward, her sword crashing to the pavement loudly. When he got close enough, he shoved her against the brick wall, wrapping his hand around the knife's handle. He pulled it her from her gut only to stab her with it once more, this time directly into her heart, staring her in the eyes. "That's for Chloe," he whispered harshly, twisting the blade mercilessly.

Chloe's eyes widened and even if she had tried to, she wouldn't have been able to move. She had always known Oliver was a good fighter, and a quick one at that. He had to be, the Green Arrow required that much of his abilities, but right then? She had barely even seen him move. Next thing she knew, the woman's sword was on the floor and then she heard Oliver's voice and she didn't know if it was his tone or his words that sent a shiver down her spine, possibly both.

Slowly and carefully, she stepped closer, realization hitting her all at once. The fear in Oliver's eyes and voice, the kryptonite, the lack of answers and the panic when he heard about the woman. She had come from the future to kill her. She didn't know why, but it was the only thing that made sense right then.

He watched her, watched the life drain from Alia's eyes as the Kryptonite poisoned her. He didn't look away. He couldn't look away. Not until he was sure she was dead and no longer a threat. And when her eyes drifted shut, her body dropping with a dull thud to the pavement, he still watched for a long moment. Then he kneeled down, slowly reaching out and picking up the sword she had dropped. He stared at it for a long moment, then shut his eyes, shuddering involuntarily as his head dropped forward onto his chest.

As quietly as possible, she took a couple of steps forward but kept some distance from him, not wanting to startle him, "Oliver?"

Oliver drew in a ragged breath and looked up at her, his eyes filled with more emotions than what he even had names for. Somehow he wasn't really surprised she'd followed him. She was Chloe. He swallowed hard.

Her eyes went from him to the body of the woman and back again as she stepped closer, as overwhelming as the look on his face was, she couldn't look away from him, part of her was almost scared of the intensity of it, but she knew that, whatever reason Oliver had to kill the woman so mercilessly, it was one that mattered a lot to him.

"Are you okay?" She asked quietly, all the other questions she had for him would have to wait a little while longer.

Was he okay? he wondered, staring up at her. No, he wasn't okay. He wasn't even close. Unable to speak, he simply shut his eyes, hands clutching tightly onto the blade of the sword, not even feeling the bite of it as it cut into his skin.

"I will be," he said just as quietly. As soon as it was all over, he would be all right. Because maybe he'd be with Chloe again, wherever she was.

Gasping silently when she saw the blood dripping down the blade of the sword, Chloe moved closer, "you're hurting yourself."

He drew in a breath, relaxing his grip on the sword and slowly rising to his feet, a wave of exhaustion washing over him. He leaned heavily against the brick wall for a moment. "We need to find Clark."

Without thinking about it, she wrapped an arm around him and helped him stand up, "you are going to rest and I'll find Clark."

Oliver wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around her in return and drag her into a hug. But he wouldn't. This wasn't his Chloe. She may never be his Chloe. The thought saddened him, but he pushed it away quickly. That hardly mattered. There were more important things to deal with--like making sure Zod didn't take over earth, and keeping _this_ Chloe alive.


	5. Through a Glass, Darkly

Title: Through a Glass, Darkly  
Rated: PG-13  
Authors: [](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/profile)[**dl_greenarrow**](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/) and [](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/profile)[**chloeas**](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/)  
Spoilers: Up for and including all of Pandora from season 9, though this is very, very AU.  
Pairing: Chloe/Oliver.

[Prologue](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/366281.html) | [One](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/369460.html) | [Two](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/370747.html) | [Three](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/373001.html)

It had taken them a while to get back to the Watchtower, but when they did, Chloe had managed to get Oliver to shower, eat and he was now sleeping on the fold out couch that she had on top of the stairs of the Watchtower and she was back to researching.

As for Clark, he knew a kryptonian was around and she had no doubt that he was looking for her, especially after the woman attacked Lois, so she knew if she went to the top of the tower and called for him, he would come see her. And he had, it hadn't taken him more than twenty seconds to show up, she had explained to him as much as she could about Oliver, Lois and whatever little she knew about the woman, she had also told him Oliver was adamant about talking to him and Clark had promised to keep an ear out for when she called again once Oliver was awake.

It had been the longest conversation she had had with Clark since... she couldn't even remember when, but he felt more like himself than he had during the very brief conversations they had had in the past few months and when he told Chloe that he was also checking on Lois every few minutes, she knew that her cousin being back was the reason why Clark was more like, well, Clark.

Once he left, she went back to the computers, she didn't have a lot to research on, it wasn't like wikipedia had an entry for Kandorians, but she had to keep herself busy somehow, or she would go crazy with all the questions she didn't have answers for.

He'd only been asleep for an hour or so when the nightmare hit with such vividness, he woke up suddenly, a pained shout escaping him. "Chloe!" The agony he felt was almost overwhelming and he shuddered, looking around with wild eyes and realizing where he was. He quickly rolled off the bed, pressing a hand to his stomach. Sweat had broken out on his forehead and he felt like he was going to throw up.

Chloe ran upstairs as quickly as she could when she heard him calling her name, kneeling down next to him, she took a deep breath, her eyes wide, "Oliver, what? What's wrong?"

Without thinking about it, he reached for her, pulling her into his arms and burying his face into her neck.

She just stilled for a moment then carefully wrapped her arms around him, doing her best not to hurt him as she did, he was shaking and instinctively, she wrapped her arms tighter around him. Whatever had happened to him, it must have been awful, worse than Doomsday. And the thought that whatever it was could be happening within one year scared her, but this wasn't about her, Oliver had seen whatever it was and he was there to stop it and that's what she had to help him do.

But first, she had to do her best to help him, even if she didn't think there was much she could do, she could still try.

"It's okay, just calm down."

Oliver stilled at the sound of her voice, at the familiarity of her embrace. It had only been--how long, he wondered, a day? two?--since he'd held her, and it felt like an eternity. Not my Chloe, he thought, distantly aware that he was possibly losing his sanity. He slowly pulled away from her, keeping his eyes shut. Not my Chloe, he repeated in his head. "Sorry," he muttered, forcing himself to take a deep breath. He had to get himself together. He had to.

She pulled away too, watching him for a long moment, her chest tight and without thinking about, she moved closer to him, "what happened to you?" Her voice was so quiet, she wasn't even sure he had heard her, but she had to know.

"It wasn't just me," he answered warily. "It was everyone. The entire human race." He looked up at her, his eyes intense with emotions.

Placing a hand on his arm, she frowned, looking him in the eyes, trying to read what she could off of his expression, "tell me."

He looked down at her hand for a moment, then back up at her. "Major Zod is here." He knew she knew who that was, because she had in the future. She'd been the one to explain it to him, in fact.

Chloe blinked, staring at him, "Zod?" Her eyes widened slowly, the last time Zod had been on Earth, using Lex's body as his vessel, he had almost managed to destroy it, "how? Clark got rid of him, and Bra-" And Braniac, until Braniac infected her and she was almost responsible for another apocalypse, "who is his vessel?"

"He is the vessel," he answered quietly. "Something to do with cloning and an alien crystal." He let out a breath.

"A clone? But how did he get to Earth?" There were no space ships that she knew about, nothing like Clark's or Braniac's and if he was a clone in Zod's own body, he couldn't have just... showed up.

"His DNA was in the crystal, Chloe. And the crystal was activated. It recreated him somehow here on earth."

Holding her breath, she watched him, processing the information for just a couple of seconds then trying to think of the best way to ask him what she needed to know, "what did he do?"

Oliver drew in a breath, leaning back against the side of the bed. "He didn't have powers under this sun. None of them did. So they got rid of it. Replaced it with a red sun using solar towers that were built in downtown Metropolis. Once they had their powers--" He shut his eyes for a moment. "They were practically invincible."

She was silent as he told her about the army of Kandorians that had appeared on Earth along with their leader and how they had completely taken over everything once they had their powers, but Oliver's explanations were vague and she was trying to do her best not to push him, she knew how much talking about this was hurting him, she could see it in his eyes.

"Where was Clark?" She asked quietly.

He tensed a little, his jaw tightening. "He couldn't handle being around us," he said with a hint of bitterness. "He turned his back on us, tried to take care of it himself. He wound up losing his powers and imprisoned along with a lot of others at his own barn." His eyes were dark, distant as memories flooded over him. "Before that, we tried to get through to him. More than once." He shook his head. "And then he just vanished one day. We didn't see him again until Zod was going to have him and--" He paused. "Another human executed."

Her stomach tightened at the obvious omission, "who was it?"

He swallowed hard and looked at her again. "Lois," he admitted quietly. "But we stopped him. We killed several of his men and--" A pained expression flickered over his face and he shook his head. "And we freed them. Lois had the ring."

With a deep breath, she nodded, realizing how close she had been to losing her cousin for real, "thank you for bringing her back."

Oliver shut his eyes at her words. "Please don't thank me," he said quietly, rubbing a hand over his face.

Chloe shifted closer to him, he was hurting so much, he looked so broken and she didn't know how to comfort him, "you came back to stop Zod." It wasn't a question this time, it was obvious that the man had to be stopped.

"I killed Zod before I used the ring to come back here," he said almost inaudibly, affected by her closeness. "We disabled the towers."

The change in him made something inside of her cold, if they had stopped Zod and if they had disabled the source of the Kandorian's powers, then... "why are you here?" He had told her once, and watching him in the alley gave her a pretty good idea of what his answer was, but she had to hear it from him.

His eyes were glassy when he lifted his gaze to look at her once more. "To save you," he whispered.

After opening and closing her mouth a couple of times, she closed it without saying anything and moved closer to him wordlessly and took his hand in hers. She knew talking about it wasn't going to be easy on him, but she had to know how it happened if they wanted to prevent it, "how did it happen?" Her voice was even quieter than before.

He lifted her hand to his lips without thinking about it, kissing her knuckles and shutting his eyes. "Alia. That sword." He shook his head, his throat tight. "I couldn't stop her. I was too late. I tried to get there, I wasn't fast enough. I couldn't stop her," he whispered again.

Squeezing his hand in hers she let out a breath, shifting even closer and pulling her knees towards her chest, "then it's over, Oliver, she's dead, she can't hurt me anymore."

"She can't," he admitted. "But I have to stop Zod and the others." His voice was weary.

"We will," she told him, watching his face closely, "we'll stop him before they can get the towers up, Oliver," because even as he told her his story, she vowed he would never have to go through those things again, that no matter what she had to do, Oliver would have a better future than what he had seen.

"Chloe." He shook his head a little. "It's too risky. I don't want you involved anymore than you have to be. I don't know what kind of affect me being here is going to have on this world or it's events." At least not other than stopping the Kandorians. He knew that was one major thing that would change. Those towers would never see the light of day. Not as long as he was alive.

"You came here to protect me, Oliver," she held his gaze, her hand still tight around his, "I'm going to help you stop everything from happening, after we do, if you want to go back to your time, that's your choice, but until then, I'm not leaving your side."

"There's no point in me going back," he said quietly, looking away. Frankly, he didn't care what happened to him as long as he stopped the towers from being built and the Kandorian's from getting their powers. It just didn't matter.

The way he was reacting to 'her' death had been making her wonder if there wasn't something more than just the mutual respect and friendship between them where Oliver had come from, but this time, she didn't ask anything, she just watched him silently, thinking of ways to help him feel better.

He drew in a breath and let it out slowly, rising to his feet slowly, still holding onto her hand as he looked down at her. "It's time to call Clark."

Chloe stood too, not letting go of his hand but not using it as support to get up either, she just wanted to give him the reassurance that she was there, even if she wasn't 'his' Chloe, she wanted him to know he wasn't alone.

"Let's go back downstairs and we will."

 

"Okay," he said quietly, looking down at their hands as he let her guide him toward the stairs. "I'm sorry you had to see that before. With Alia."

"You have nothing to apologize for, Oliver, you were _protecting_ me." And avenging her death at the same time, but he didn't need reminders of that.

 

He exhaled slowly. "It's still not something I wanted you to see." His Chloe wouldn't have thought twice about it. She would've done the same thing. But this Chloe wasn't that jaded, hadn't been through the hell that they had. And he didn't want to be the one that ruined her. She'd already been through too much with losing Lois, and Clark turning his back on their friendship in lieu of his alien side, and Jimmy dying in her arms. He didn't want to be the one that added to that horror.

"It's my own fault I followed you into the alley," she reminded him quietly, "please don't blame yourself, it sounds like you already have enough weight on your shoulders as is."

Oliver met her eyes as they stopped on the last step. She was so beautiful and _alive_. "Okay." He squeezed her hand lightly.

Chloe nodded slightly, holding his gaze and squeezing his hand back, her chest tightening at the way he was looking at her, Oliver had never looked at her like that before, there was almost an admiration in his eyes and while she knew it wasn't and admiration for her, but for a different version of herself, she couldn't help but smile a tiny smile at him and give him the best reassuring look that she could before looking away.

She was going to have to be careful and constantly remind herself that whatever version of herself that Oliver knew was someone else entirely and whenever he looked at her like that, she shouldn't take it personally, she was just the closest thing he had to the person he had just lost.

But she already knew that wasn't going to be easy.


	6. Through a Glass, Darkly

Title: Through a Glass, Darkly  
Rated: PG-13  
Authors: [](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/profile)[**dl_greenarrow**](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/) and [](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/profile)[**chloeas**](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/)  
Spoilers: Up for and including all of Pandora from season 9, though this is very, very AU.  
Pairing: Chloe/Oliver.

[Prologue](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/366281.html) | [Chapter One](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/369460.html) | [Chapter Two](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/370747.html) | [Chapter Three](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/373001.html) | [Chapter Four](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/375666.html)

 

  
Oliver stood in the kitchen of the Watchtower, tensing involuntarily at the gust of wind that announced Clark's arrival. He drew in a breath, staring at the other man for a long, silent moment. His jaw was tight. Somewhere within him, he blamed Clark Kent deeply for the entire disaster that had been the last year of his life. If Clark had just been willing to man up and kill Davis Bloome, everything would have been different. If Clark hadn't turned his back on Chloe, if he hadn't insisted on taking Zod on alone, the Kandorians wouldn't have taken over so quickly and easily. If Clark hadn't lost his powers because he'd been too weak to act against the major while he could, his Chloe would still be alive.

He tried to remind himself that this was not the Clark from his world anymore than the Chloe standing beside was his Chloe. The difference was he loved and admired and would willingly die or kill for Chloe--any version of her. Clark was a different story. And this Clark had _still_ turned his back on Chloe in her time of need, and even if she wasn't _his_ Chloe, Oliver resented the man for it. His gaze was intense as he stared at the dark-haired man.

From what Chloe had told him, the Oliver that was there was pretty different than the man they knew, but somehow, Clark didn't feel like he was looking at him any differently than the last time they had met.

Nodding at Chloe, he then turned to face Oliver, "Chloe told me you were looking for me." The man looked like he wanted to get down to business and Clark was okay with that, he had to check on Lois, he still wasn't convinced that one Kryptonian was the only one that had come from the future after her.

He nodded slightly, glancing at Chloe briefly before facing Clark once more. Good. He didn't want to play nicey-nice with Clark Kent at the moment. Or ever, for that matter. "Zod is on earth," he said without preamble, delving immediately into the same story he'd told Chloe less than an hour before, though giving him less detail than he had. "So we need to stop him, and all of them before it's too late."

Chloe could feel the tension between the two of them and right then, powers or no powers, she knew if they had some kind of fight, Oliver would be the one seriously damaging Clark. Possibly with the same knife he had used on Alia earlier. She just had to make sure they both kept it together, but otherwise, she planned on letting them talk without much interference. "We need to stop those towers from going up," she added, when Oliver finished his story.

It wasn't easy for Clark to process all the information Oliver had given him but he was doing his best, Oliver knew what happened and knew what to avoid so he was willing to, at the very least, listen to his suggestions on how to change the future, "what else can we do?"

"There's only one way I know for sure to prevent that future from taking place," he said without hesitation. He looked straight at Clark, not able to look at Chloe. He didn't want to see what her reaction would be to that. He didn't want to see the shock, or the horror in her eyes.

"And what is it?" He asked directly, not wanting to waste time.

"They have to die, Clark."

While Chloe's eyes widened at the words, she didn't say anything. Her stomach clenched because she _knew_ that solution wouldn't go well with Clark. She just knew he wasn't going to be open to Oliver's plan.

"Oliver, you said there were thousands of Kandorians out there." Because he couldn't possibly be suggesting that they killed all of them. He didn't want Zod around anymore than Oliver did, last time had been close enough, but to kill thousands of people? That was completely different.

He nodded slightly, keeping his eyes on Clark. "I know. But there are a few that are more important than others. Key figures. If we take care of them--" He paused, thinking of Tess Mercer momentarily, but not mentioning her. "--including Zod, the others will give up." Because that was what had happened with the humans, minus the resistance groups that Chloe had formed around the globe. "And if they don't, they can be taken care of later." His voice was quiet, determined.

He didn't like this idea, but from what he had heard of the future, that wasn't any better, "how many?"

"Zod. Alia. Faora." He named off several other names, twenty in total, leaving Tess off the list.

"We can send them to the Phantom Zone." Clark suggested, but it was more than just a suggestion. He wasn't willing to kill.

"No," Oliver said flatly, no hesitation before he answered. "They could get out too easily. If you could even manage to get them there in the first place." His voice was hard.

At that moment, Chloe chose to pipe in and nodded slightly, "people have gotten out of it before, Clark, you have. And every time the portal is opened, there is no telling what might get out of it."

Clark frowned, his eyes turning to Chloe again for the first time since Oliver had started talking, "we're not murderers, Chloe."

"You're willing to risk all of humanity to keep a few killing machines alive?" He stepped forward, shaking his head, disgust clear on his face. "Because that's what they are, Clark. Do you want to know what they did to your cousin when they found _her_?"

His jaw set and he just stared at Oliver, not saying anything, he didn't want to hear, but if it was going to help him find Kara, maybe he should.

"They took her apart," he said harshly. "Literally. The major made an example out of her. Which is exactly what he was going to have done to you and to Lois if we hadn't stopped them when we did." He gestured to Chloe without looking at her.

"And you want to do the same to them?" Clark demanded, "how does it make you any different than one of them? You want to kill them because they killed humans."

"No, Clark. I want to kill them before they have the _chance_ to kill most of the earth's population and enslave the rest of them!"

Chloe stepped forward and shook her head, placing a hand over Oliver's arm again, "calm down," she told him before turning to Clark, "both of you."

With a deep breath, she nodded, not looking directly at either man, "Oliver knows what happened, Clark, you'll have to listen to him and those Kandorians out there, they are not humans, they are clones, we have dealt with clones before and we've seen how damaged they can be, if we don't want a clone of Zod to rule Earth, we have to listen to Oliver and do the best that we can to stop him." Because she had seen the horror in Oliver's eyes as he spoke of the future and she didn't want things to go that way again.

Clark stared at her in disbelief. "Chloe, listen to yourself. You can't really be considering cold-blooded murder as an option. That's not who I am. That's not who _you_ are."

Oliver's eyes darkened at that. "That's who she'll be if you don't step up to the plate and do what has to be done," he said coldly, his eyes deadly serious. "But as long as your hands stay clean, I guess nothing else really matters to you, does it, Clark?"

His eyes narrowed. "This is my home, and I'm here to protect. But I'll find another way to do it that doesn't include killing people." His gaze flickered to Chloe once more, and he shook his head slightly. "The Phantom Zone would work, Chloe."

"It's too risky, Clark," she said as calmly as she could, almost pleadingly, and took a step forward, standing in front of her best friend, "think about last time we faced Zod, if he gets his hands on a technology like Braniac again, we will never stand a chance, we need to stop him before he manages to stop us."

"I can't, Chloe." His voice was quiet and he took a step away from her. "Unlike some people in this room, I'm not a killer."

Oliver smirked at him, his eyes dark. "If you hadn't turned your back on us in the first place, no one would have died at all. Regardless of whether you actually do the killing yourself or make someone else do it for you because you can't handle it, the blood's still on your hands."

"Oliver," she said, glancing at him and nodding at him once before turning to Clark again, "why don't you go ask the fortress, see if they know if there's a way to undo what the crystal did and just get rid of all the clones all at once, if there isn't, we'll go back to talking about Oliver's plan."

She knew Oliver was going to call it a waste of time, but she needed to show Clark that it was the only way, and she believed Oliver when he said it was.

Clark glared at Oliver for a moment longer then turned his eyes back on Chloe, the Fortress, it might have the answers he needed to prove the other man that there was no need to murder anyone. With one nod at Chloe, he vanished.

Shaking his head with disgust, Oliver's jaw clenched tightly and he raked a hand through his hair, frustrated. "Is my gear here?" he asked without looking at her.

"Yeah," she answered a moment later, looking in the direction of the door still, "I went to the clock tower after you vanished and picked it up, I didn't know if someone from your staff was going to stop by and end up seeing it."

Nodding, he headed to the place he knew instinctively it would be, determination clear on his features. Sure enough, he pressed a code into the small box outside the hidden paneling, and watched as the paneling rolled up. He pulled his bow and quiver out.

All she could do was watch him for a few moment, her eyes a little wide as the code he put in actually worked, "I guess I need to be more inventive with the passwords." It was meant to be a joke, but her voice didn't carry a lot of humor.

"Your password's fine for someone who didn't already know it," he told her quietly, sliding the quiver onto his back and turning to look at her.

Pursing her lips together, she looked up at him, "you can't go after him by yourself, you're still weak."

Oliver shrugged a little, meeting her eyes for a moment. "There isn't time to waste."

"No," she insisted and for a second, she paused, looking at him, her eyes widening slowly as she started to think of something, "we need... _you_."

He paused, a little thrown by the look on her face. He knew that look. It was the look that she always got when she was brainstorming, formulating their next plan. It was a look that he had grown fascinated by over the last ten months because her cunning and intelligence had never ceased to amaze him. "What are you talking about?" he asked quietly.

"The present you," she told him, hoping it made sense, "I haven't heard from him for a while but you would know where he is, if we can track him down, he can help, even if he wouldn't listen to me, he would listen to you."

His eyebrows furrowed a little at that. "Chloe, I'm not sure that..." He was silent for a moment. "I don't know what would happen if I met with your Oliver. There's a theory that if you meet yourself at another age, you both die."

Frowning slowly she nodded then after a second, she shook her head "but he's not really _you_ anymore, he's a different version of yourself," another pause as it hit her and she stood up straighter, "I can talk to him, you don't have to physically see each other."

"What will you say to him?" he asked softly, his expression a little uncertain as he gazed at her.

"Tell him the truth," she told him, "gradually, but eventually, just tell him the truth."

After a second of hesitation, she frowned at him, "do you think it would work?"

He was quiet for a moment. "Maybe," he murmured, contemplating. He looked down at the floor. "But right now I'm not sure he's ready to deal with anything outside his own misery." There was a hint of shame in his voice. He knew without a doubt what his younger self was off doing, and it wasn't anything good. But that was how he'd always dealt with his guilt. He pushed everyone away, went on a downward spiral. Before Chloe and the others had found him and rescued him from the Kandorian's, it was exactly what he'd been doing. And it had nearly gotten him killed.

"Then you help me get through to him and help him before we start this," she said quietly, stepping closer and looking up at him, if anyone would know how to get through to Oliver, it would be himself.

It was difficult to think clearly when she was standing so close to him. For a moment, he just gazed at her. "I'll help you get through to him, but not for this," he murmured, searching her eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"He's not ready for this, Chloe." He smiled sadly. "I'm not even sure both of us together would convince him to come back to the fold right now."

Her face fell for a second but she tried to pull herself together and nodded, "where is he?" She had no idea what was going on with Oliver, but from what the older version of himself was telling her, it didn't sound good.

"Either cage fighting or drinking himself into oblivion about now," he said softly. "Possibly both."

"Why?"

It occurred to him that his younger self had kept her at a distance the same way he had--the difference was _he_ knew why. He drew in a breath and let it out slowly. "Guilt mostly. Self-pity." He looked down at the floor. "And a dose of hatred thrown in for good measure."

With a soft sigh, she shook her head, looking at him for a second then looking away, "because of Jimmy." It was the only thing that made sense.

He drew in a breath and let it out slowly. "Because of Jimmy...and Lex," he admitted quietly.

Chloe frowned a little at his words then nodded, "you need to help me find him, then, I have been looking everywhere but he's only using cash and I can't track him down."

Oliver nodded slightly. "Yeah, I--he..." He shook his head a little. "We didn't want to be found."

"I figured that much," she gave him a sad smile then shrugged, "but he doesn't have an option anymore."

A wry smile touched his lips at her words and he gazed at her intently.

Raising her eyebrows, she looked up at him for a second, cocking her head, it wasn't going to be easy to get used to him looking at her like that, she felt like he was trying to read her mind, "what?"

He ducked his head a little, realizing he'd been staring. "For a minute there..." He paused and glanced at her once more. "You sounded just like her. So determined." His voice was quiet.

Chloe looked at him for a moment and shifted slightly, "I'm sorry things happened the way they did."

Oliver looked down at the floor, still holding onto his bow. "Me too," he murmured. "But it happened for a reason. It happened so I could stop it from happening."

"We will stop it." She told him, cocking her head slightly so she could meet his gaze.

His eyes softened at her words. "We," he echoed softly. "It's just us." He closed his eyes.

Chloe's own face softened when she saw the look on his face and she stepped closer, she didn't know what he was talking about, but she wanted to comfort him, "we'll find the other you and we will help you fight Zod, even if Clark can't agree with us, we'll figure something out."

"Fighting Zod won't be a problem right now," he said softly. "He doesn't have powers. Which means he's as vulnerable to dying as we are." He opened his eyes once more and looked at her. "So are the other Kandorians." He held his breath. And so was Tess. "Chloe, there's something I may have to do. And it could be the worst thing I've ever done. And if I have to do it, you can't..." He exhaled, shaking his head. "Don't ever let the other me find out if you can help it."

That worried her, she had no idea what kind of things this Oliver had gone through but she knew they were no walk in the park and if this, whatever it was, was worst than anything else he could think of, "what is it?" her voice was quit when she asked, worried.

"Tess Mercer," he whispered, expression strickened.

"What about Tess?" She asked, confused.

Oliver was silent for a moment. "She's helping Zod. It's her resources that put the towers in place."

That information wasn't something she expected, she didn't like or trust the woman, but she didn't understand how she would have been involved with Zod in the first place, "how did that happen?"

"She's the one who had the crystal," he told her quietly, not quite meeting her eyes. "She didn't know what she was doing at the time when she activated it. At least, I hope she didn't. But the towers wouldn't have gone up without her assistance. She was the only human that Zod cared about. The only human he saw as an equal to himself." He fell silent, knowing she'd be able to draw the rest of the conclusions from there.

"So she needs to be stopped," she said quietly, looking away then looking at him.

"Yes," he said just as quietly. "I left that part out of what I told Clark intentionally."

She took a deep breath and moved to sit down on the couch, "but she's human." And although that it sounded like it was Tess' fault that this whole thing was happening in the first place, that didn't change anything, they would still be taking a human life.

"I know." Oliver stared down at the floor. It wasn't something he was looking forward to. Despite everything she'd done, all the pain and suffering she'd caused, however unintentionally it might have been--and he truly believed it had been unintentional, at least to begin with, he couldn't bring himself to hate her. He rubbed a hand over his face wearily, his shoulders slumping a little. But it was a necessary evil. His Chloe had taught him that much. Even though he'd been unable to kill Tess himself, she had been strong enough to do it. And now _this_ Chloe's life depended on him being able to make that same choice. To take that same harsh action. He couldn't let her down.

Chloe watched him, she knew Oliver and Tess had a history together and for him to suggest killing her like that, she had no doubt that he had strong reasons behind it, but she had to make sure it was the only option, "I assume you've tried reasoning with her?"

"Once Mercy has something in her head, there's no reasoning with her. She thinks she's doing the right thing." His voice was quiet.

"But if we stop Zod and the others, there won't be anything for her to follow through with." She said, almost as quietly as him, she didn't want him to have to do this if there was another solution.

"There are thousands of them," he murmured. "Who's to say she won't wind up working with one of them instead?" He shut his eyes tightly.

Chloe nodded softly, sighing and leaning back against the couch and looking up at him, "I guess we will do what we have to."

"I need you to let me do this on my own," he said softly, not looking at her. And he didn't want her to have blood on her hands when this was all over. He wanted her to have a clear conscience. It was something he himself could never have, but he wanted to right as many wrongs as he could while he could.

"If that's what it comes down to, we will try to figure something out in the meantime." Because she was determined to help him anyway she could, it was weird but in a way, she felt responsible for him, like she had to pick up where her other self had left off.

The quiet reassurance in her tone is so familiar, he can't help but feel comforted by it. He nodded slightly and turned his head to look at her. "I should head out, do some recon. See how far they've gotten already, and how many of them are gathered together."

"Are you sure? I mean, you're still hurt." She didn't want to tell him what to do, but she didn't have to like the idea of him going out there like that, "besides, we need to find the other you."

"One thing at a time," Oliver told her softly. "And one's a lot more important than the other."

"When you get back, then," she nodded.

He nodded as well, offering her a small smile as he turned and headed for the elevator.

Chloe nodded back and once he was gone, she got up. While he was out, she would try to find what she could her own way, hack into the LuthorCorp computers and if she could, the network from the Luthor Mansion itself, she had no doubt there would be something in there if they had already started to work on it and she wanted to make this as easy on Oliver as possible.


	7. Through a Glass, Darkly

Title: Through a Glass, Darkly  
Rated: PG-13  
Authors: [](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/profile)[**dl_greenarrow**](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/) and [](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/profile)[**chloeas**](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/)  
Spoilers: Up for and including all of Pandora from season 9, though this is very, very AU.  
Pairing: Chloe/Oliver.

[Prologue](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/366281.html) | [One](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/369460.html) | [Two](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/370747.html) | [Three](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/373001.html) | [Four](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/375666.html) | [Five](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/376740.html)

By the time Oliver returned to the Watchtower, it was nearly two in the morning. He made his way inside quietly, pausing in his tracks when he spotted Chloe at the computer terminal, her head resting on the desk, eyes shut. He put his bow and quiver away, closing the paneling silently and slowly making his way over to her. Her eyebrows were furrowed and he could tell that while she was asleep, she wasn't having sweet dreams. He wondered how much of the nightmare she was experiencing had been his own doing. He swallowed hard, unable to stop himself from reaching out and gently smoothing the hair back from her face. He held his breath as her expression shifted into a more peaceful one. Then he hesitantly slid his arms around her, carefully shifting her into his arms as he carried her toward the stairs, barely aware of the pain in his stomach.

She felt someone moving her but the day had been so long and she had had so much to deal with, she didn't want to wake up, in the past few months, she had done this night after night, falling asleep on her desk while trying to find Lois or one of the others and going right back to work when she woke up, but this felt more comfortable, so comfortable that even after she realized that there was someone holding her and taking her away, it took her a while to open her eyes.

And when she did and saw Oliver looking down at her, she couldn't help but smile a little at the warmth in his eyes.

"Go back to sleep," he whispered gently, carefully laying her down in her bed and pressing a kiss against her forehead without really thinking about it. It was one of those things he was just so used to doing every night that even if it seemed weird to Chloe, it was simply instinctual for him.

Shifting in his arms, she shook her head, opening her eyes a little wider, "what did you find out?"

Oliver hesitated a moment, then reluctantly let go of her, sitting down on the very edge of the fold out couch. "There are about thirty of them at a complex just outside Smallville, Zod included." He exhaled slowly. "Mercy still resides at the mansion."

Chloe sat down next to him and nodded a little, rubbing her face as she tried to get herself to wake up some more, "so that should be our first target, the complex Zod is at."

He turned his head to look at her. "You should go back to sleep, Chloe." There was a touch of concern in his voice.

"You need sleep more than I do," she pointed out stubbornly, she was exhausted, true, but he was hurt.

"When's the last time you slept?" he challenged, raising an eyebrow.

"Last night," she answered, which was technically true, she had slept, he just didn't need to know for how long or how.

He studied her for a moment, sensing she wasn't being entirely truthful with him. He sighed softly and looked away. "How about we both sleep for a few hours?" he suggested wearily.

"And you'll be here when I wake up?" Because she didn't put it past him to just break into Zod's complex and start killing people with no plan and while hurt, and if something happened to him, she would have no idea what to do.

He winced a little at that, knowing exactly what she meant. "I will be," he promised softly.

After watching him for a moment, Chloe nodded, "this is the only bed available, you're injured, you should have it."

"No. I'm not kicking you out of your own bed. The couch is fine, Chloe. Besides. I'm not hurt that badly." He rose to his feet.

Chloe watched him and shook her head, "it's big enough for us to share, then, you're not sleeping on the couch." She didn't care what his standards for 'hurt badly' were, stabbed in the gut definitely made the list on hers and she didn't want him to get any worse.

Oliver froze at her words, standing completely still for a full moment. "I'm not sure that's a good idea," he murmured, swallowing hard.

Her eyes widened a little at his reaction, she wasn't sure which way to read that, but she wasn't going to ask anymore questions, "you're taking the bed," she said firmly, standing up and grabbing one of the pillows, "and no sneaking out."

"No, wait." He caught her wrist in a gentle grasp, his expression pained. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. We can share." His voice was almost inaudible as he gazed at her. Because as torturous as sharing a bed with her would be on his mind, the idea of not was even worse.

"I don't want to make you uncomfortable, Oliver," she said quietly, her expression softening, "I really am okay with the couch, I don't need that much space anyway." She told him with a soft smile.

"I don't want you to go," he said quietly, looking down at her hand and hesitantly intertwining his fingers with hers.

Chloe's chest tightened slightly and she looked down at their hands before looking up at him again and nodding, "okay," she said quietly.

He gave her hand a light squeeze before letting her go. He automatically moved to the left side, not thinking about it. It was just how he and his Chloe always slept--him on the left, between her and the door.

After taking off her shoes, she moved to the other side of the bed, putting the pillow back down before sliding in under the covers. She didn't bother to change, she would shower and change when she got up, right now it sounded like too much work, but she also had the feeling that Oliver needed her to be there with him.

Once he laid down too, she reached for the lamp on her night stand and glanced over at him, "ready?"

"Yes," he murmured, not bothering to undress from his uniform. He lay on his side, facing her, exhaling slowly as she turned off the lamp.

Chloe lay silently for a moment, the darkness beginning to give her the courage to ask the question she hadn't managed to yet, "you loved her," she said quietly, the words just rolling out of her tongue and not even really in a question form, it didn't take a genius to figure that much out the way he had been looking at her since he got there.

"More than anything," he admitted just as quietly.

She hesitated for a second and reached for his hand again, squeezing it as tightly in her as she could, "I'm so sorry, Oliver," she told him, even though she knew it wasn't going to help at all, she wanted him to know that much, "I wish things had been different for the two of you," it was weird that she was talking about another version of herself and Oliver, together in that way, but she knew what it felt like to lose the person you loved.

He held onto her hand, his throat tightening in response to her words. "Me too," he admitted, blinking back unshed tears. "But they will be."

"We'll make sure of it," she assured him, turning on her side to face him and placing her other hand around his too, her own vision getting blurry by unshed tears, "but I have no doubt that, no matter what happens, she will be proud of you. I'm sure she knew just how lucky she was to have you."

Oliver brought their hands to his lips and kissed the knuckles of her hand lightly, holding her hand against his cheek for a moment. "I was the lucky one."

Holding her breath, she just squeezed his hand but didn't say anything. It didn't seem fair, after everything they had gone through, after fighting and surviving everything, for him to not be able to celebrate his freedom with his Chloe, out of everyone, even after everything she herself had been through, she couldn't think of anyone who deserved to be happy as much as this Oliver did.

"Maybe when this is over, you can go back to your time just in time to save her." She knew that was cheating and she wasn't even one hundred percent sure how this time traveling thing worked, but she had to make it right for him, somehow.

He was pretty sure it wouldn't work out that way, but he appreciated the effort more than she knew. "Maybe," he echoed, letting his eyes drift shut even as he clutched onto her hand. "But I think as long as I can save you, that's what matters."

Chloe rubbed her free hand over his gently, soothingly, "get some rest," she told him quietly.

 

Within moments, he fell into a deep, peaceful slumber, grateful that she had stayed with him. Because, somewhere in the back of his mind as he was drifting off, he realized that she _was_ his Chloe. She was just younger.

*******

When she woke up, it was still dark outside, Chloe started to move but stilled when she felt Oliver's arm wrapped tightly around her waist, she was surprised he had that much strength even when he was clearly deeply asleep, she could tell by his even breathing, as she turned her head slightly to look at him, her chest tightened one more, he was curled up against her side and his lips were pressed against her shoulder.

Instead of moving away, she moved closer and felt his hold on her relax as she turned towards him slightly and wrapped an arm around him too, to her surprise, she notice his features relaxing too and the hint of a smile appeared on his lips, she had no doubt that he was dreaming of _her_ and if that was all he had left, she didn't want to disturb his dreams.

With a soft sigh, she leaned her head against his and allowed herself to relax.

It was weird to think that this Oliver was in love with a version of herself, she had never really thought of Oliver that way, sure, she knew he was undeniably attractive, in fact, one of the most gorgeous men she had ever seen in her life, but when she met him, he was dating Lois and usually the men who went after her cousin didn't give her a second look, case in point: Clark, so she didn't give him much thought before either so she couldn't help but wonder how it happened.

From what he had told her, it sounded like all the League members were gone as well as Clark and Lois, so she assumed the fact that the only familiar faces they had around were each others' helped. But still, it didn't explain why Oliver looked at her the way he did, with devotion, admiration and just so much... _love_. Even during a war, when it felt like the world was going to end every day, she was pretty sure that whatever they had between them was more than just 'last day on Earth' feelings.

And that was when she realized, she really didn't know much about the other her at all, Oliver seemed to be keeping as many details about her from his stories as possible, in fact, the only things she did know was that that Chloe was leading a team, that she had tried to contact Clark and he had turned his back on her and that she had saved Oliver from the Kandorians. She supposed the admiration she kept seeing in his eyes could also be gratitude, his Chloe had saved him after all, but she still felt like there was more to it.

Whatever it was, regardless of how hard her life had been, that Chloe had been incredibly lucky.

He shifted slightly in his sleep, his arm tightening around her just a little before his eyebrows furrowed and his eyes fluttered open. Recognizing her presence instantly, he relaxed again, closing his eyes once more. "Morning already?" he murmured sleepily.

Chloe cleared her throat when she heard him speak and lifted her free hand quickly to wipe her face, "It's still dark outside," she told him quietly, "rest some more."

"You too. Long day ahead," he whispered, thinking they were all long days. But at least they had their nights.

Raising her eyebrows a little, she turned her head towards him and smiled sadly, "sleep," she said quietly, realizing that he wasn't completely conscious and with the way his voice was relaxed, she was guessing he wasn't aware she wasn't the right Chloe either.

And so he slept.

 


	8. Through a Glass, Darkly

Title: Through a Glass, Darkly  
Rated: PG-13  
Authors: [](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/profile)[**dl_greenarrow**](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/) and [](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/)**chloeas**  
Spoilers: Up for and including all of Pandora from season 9, though this is very, very AU.  
Pairing: Chloe/Oliver.

_Since you guys have been so amazing and giving us so much feedback, we figured we'd hurry up and post the next chapter as a thank you. We really appreciate hearing what you think and we're really happy you are enjoying the story even if the whole time traveling thing can get confusing at times. You guys are awesome, thank you again._

[Prologue](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/366281.html) | [Chapter One](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/369460.html) | [Chapter Two](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/370747.html) | [Chapter Three](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/373001.html) | [Chapter Four](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/375666.html) | [Chapter Five](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/376740.html) | [Chapter Six](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/379343.html)

 

The conversation with Clark had gone about as well as she expected, actually, probably better than she expected since both he and Oliver got out of it completely unharmed. That was definitely a plus. Also as expected, Clark hadn't gotten much information from the fortress and still wasn't willing to go along with Oliver's plan.

After he left, however, Chloe had managed to talk Oliver into helping her find his present self, they had a timeline that Oliver had managed to remember where he was, to their luck, this time of the year had been just a couple of months before the future Chloe had found the future Oliver so he was fairly sure Oliver would be around Metropolis.

So she was changing, wearing dark clothes and a hoodie to make sure she blended in as much as she could, because they were just about to go searching fight clubs and cage fighting clubs in the area to see if they had any luck in spotting him and since both Olivers couldn't see each other, even though she had future Oliver to watch her back from a distance, she would pretty much have to go in on her own.

A few minutes later, she made her way downstairs, tugging on the turtle neck of the dark green sweater she had found in one of the boxes of clothes she had brought in from the Talon apartment, "I'm ready," she announced, looking around for Oliver.

He looked at her worriedly, still not loving the plan she'd come up with. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" The uncertainty in his voice was clear.

"We need to get him back one way or another," she repeated her words from their earlier conversation, walking towards her desk and sliding the pepper spray in one of her cargo pants pockets and her taser in another, "besides, we'll have the communicators, if I get in trouble, you come in and give me a hand, just make sure your face is covered so he doesn't see you."

Oliver drew in a breath, resisting the urge to tell her that his younger self wasn't worth risking _her_ life over, regardless. But somehow he had a feeling she wouldn't like that very much. Besides, it was Chloe. And frankly he had a difficult time telling her no. "All right," he murmured.

"You're my best shot at getting him back, Oliver," she told him as she walked up towards where he was, getting his other self back wasn't just for this mission, if he really was as low on himself as this Oliver seemed to believe he was, she had to help him.

She wasn't wrong. "I know," he said softly, gazing down at her intently. "I'll help you."

"Thank you," she told him, a soft smile on her lips as she held his gaze for a moment before turning around and grabbing her keys, "let's go."

* * *

Oliver winced as the other man's fist slammed into cheek, sending him sprawling against the wire cage. He gripped onto it for a moment, reaching up to wipe the blood off his mouth before turning to face him once more. "That was a freebie."

When he winced, so did she, that looked painful and there was a lot of blood all over his face and the front of his shirt too as it was. She felt like kicking his ass herself, but she was trying to keep in mind what future Oliver had told her about this one.

It wasn't until the fight was almost over and Oliver was pretty hurt that she managed to make her way through the crowd towards the cage, she held on to the wire so she wouldn't get pushed back again and watched it intensely, hoping he would notice her there at some point.

He didn't notice her until the final hit--this one to the gut--sent him sailing into the cage right in front of her. He blinked a few times to clear his vision and make sure he wasn't seeing things and then his eyebrows furrowed as he realized he wasn't. "Chloe?"

As the crowd roared around her, she held his gaze, leaning down as much as she could as she was pressed against the cage, "I came to get you, you're leaving with me." She had no idea if that was going to work, but she figured the other Oliver could give her better guidance through the communicator once she got this one to a place where they could talk.

Oliver stared at her, taken aback by what could only be described as an _order_. "How did you even find me?"

"We'll need to talk about this somewhere else," she moved down a little more so their faces were closer, her eyes on his, "I need your help."

He was silent for a moment. "Where?"

She almost sighed in relief when he didn't tell her to go away, "I'll wait for you outside."

Oliver shut his eyes for a moment. "I'll see you there," he muttered, before moving away.

* * *

Standing in the back of the crowd, but still making sure to keep an eye on Chloe, he pressed the button on the communicator. He wondered if she had any idea that she was the only one that could bring him--no matter which version of him was in question--to his knees. Despite the way he'd once felt about Lois, and Tess, for that matter, Chloe had always had a different effect on him. And while his younger self might not like it, _he_ also knew his younger self wouldn't be able to refuse Chloe help. "Good work," he said into the comm device.

At his words, she allowed herself to smile even as she pushed, with difficulty, her way through the crowd and towards where he was standing, "thank you," she answered. She had been a little nervous about bossing Oliver around like that, but if Oliver himself had told her it would work, she figured it was, at the very least, worth a try.

He couldn't help but smile back at her faintly as she approached him, nodding a little and relaxing a bit when she was within arms reach of him once more. "It's going to take him a little while to get out of here."

"Well, we can wait outside, right?" She said as she took the last couple of steps towards him then made a face, "this place smells."

He grimaced a little. "Yeah, definitely." He held his hand out to her without thinking about it.

Chloe looked down at his hand, a little surprised, but didn't hesitate before taking it, she assumed that was something he was used to doing with his Chloe and again, she really wanted to make sure he felt as comfortable as she possibly could. He _was_ doing her a favor after all by helping him with his younger self.

He smiled at her, meeting her eyes for a moment before turning and pushing his way through the crowd and leading her out of the building. Once they were outside, he drew in a breath and let it out slowly, turning to look at her. "I'll be in the cafe across the street," he told her, squeezing her hand lightly.

Looking up at him, she nodded, squeezing his hand back, "and you'll follow in your bike if I manage to get him back to the Watchtower."

He nodded slightly. "Yeah. Good luck," he told her quietly, reluctantly releasing her hand before heading across the street, pressing a hand against his stomach involuntarily.

She watched as he walked away, frowning when he clutched his stomach, not that bad? Yeah, right. He was obviously in pain, but at least he was going to sit down while she talked to the other Oliver.

Leaning back against the wall, she glanced towards the club and waited.

The other, younger Oliver was already dreading this confrontation. He made his way out of the club slowly with clean clothes on, but clothes did nothing to hide the bruises and cuts on his face and hands. Or the fact that he was walking with a very slight limp. Holding his breath, he made his way to where Chloe was standing, looking none too happy. "What is it?"

Standing up straight, she looked up at him and frowned at his words, "What? No 'good to see you, Chloe, how have you been'?" She asked him, her words covered in sarcasm, mostly because she wasn't sure how to approach him, the older Oliver had told her to be firm and not take no for an answer, but he also told her this Oliver wasn't ready to deal with the whole Zod thing, so she was going to somehow be firm and vague at the same time and that didn't exactly sound like an easy task.

He closed his eyes momentarily, then opened them again and looked at her. "Good to see you, Chloe. How have you been?" he responded, his words just as sarcastic, though his eyes didn't come close to matching them.

Chloe gave him a look and just shook her head in response, "I know you were trying to stay away from everyone and you don't want to deal with us or you wouldn't have vanished, but I wouldn't have tracked you down if I didn't really need your help."

"Help with what?" he asked warily, not quite meeting her gaze. "Because I gotta tell you, Chloe, I'm sort of out of the helping field these days."

"Yeah?" She asked him, narrowing her eyes, "how is your career in getting the life beaten out of you working out? Is that better?"

He fell silent, not really sure how to respond to her verbal lashing. "What do you need help with?" he asked tiredly, letting his tough guy demeanor drop for the time being.

Chloe almost felt bad for talking to him like that, she knew he was already kicking himself as it was, but she was doing what the other Oliver had suggested and she knew he would know better than she would on how to get to him, "I can't tell you yet," she said honestly, "but it's big, Oliver and I can't do it without you."

"Yeah? And what happened to Clark? I'm sure whatever it is, he's a lot better suited to help with than I am." His voice was flat and he looked away.

"Clark isn't willing to do what needs to be done." She said firmly, staring at his face even as he looked away.

"What a shock."

Crossing her arms over her chest, she looked up at him, "are you willing to help me or not?"

Oliver rubbed a hand over his face, closing his eyes. "I'm yours," he said reluctantly.

Chloe couldn't help but smile at his words, that was definitely a start. "Good, first thing I need from you is for you to shower, I can give you a ride back to the clock tower."

Despite everything, a smile tugged at the corner of his lips, though he did his best to suppress it. "Glad to see you've still got your inappropriate sense of humor," he said wryly.

"Nice to be able to use it on someone who appreciates it," she said, sliding her hands into her pockets, "do you have anything you need to grab or are you ready to go?"

He watched her for a moment, then exhaled. "I'm ready," he said with a slight shrug. There wasn't anything he needed to grab, because he didn't have anything _to_ grab. He had nothing at all. And for the life of him, he didn't know why she seemed to think he'd be able to help her with whatever it was she needed help with. He was no hero.

Chloe nodded, pretending she was sliding a hand through her hair but pressing on the communicator button, she knew the older Oliver had been listening, but she wanted to make sure he knew they were about to leave, "okay, lets go, then."

* * *

Across the street at the cafe, the older Oliver rose to his feet, wincing a little at the throbbing in his gut. "Moving out," he said into the communicator.

The waitress who'd brought him coffee frowned, a worried look on her face. "Mr. Queen?"

He blinked and looked at her uncertainly. It had been a long time since someone he didn't know actually recognized him. It was almost weird. "Yeah?"

"You're bleeding."

He looked down at his stomach to see the blood seeping through the cotton shirt he wore. Well that explained the pain. "Oh. Thanks," he said vaguely, heading toward the exit and leaving her to stare after him. He stared at the bike for a long moment. It had been ages since he'd actually seen it. A faint smile touched his lips as he climbed onto it, revved the engine, and headed for the Watchtower.


	9. Through a Glass, Darkly

Title: Through a Glass, Darkly  
Rated: PG-13  
Authors: [](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/profile)[**dl_greenarrow**](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/) and [](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/profile)[**chloeas**](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/)  
Spoilers: Up for and including all of Pandora from season 9, though this is very, very AU.  
Pairing: Chloe/Oliver.

[Prologue](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/366281.html) | [One](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/369460.html) | [Two](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/370747.html) | [Three](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/373001.html) | [Four](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/375666.html) | [Five](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/376740.html) | [Six](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/379343.html) | [Seven](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/379449.html) |

 

Oliver parked the bike in the alley behind the Watchtower so that when the younger Oliver showed up, he wouldn't be wondering how it had gotten there. He took the elevator up, one hand resting lightly against his stomach. He felt a little nauseous in addition to the pain, but he did his best to ignore both of them because he didn't have time to deal with that kind of thing. It just didn't matter. There was work to be done.

_No matter what happens, you have to keep going._

Chloe's words rang clearly in his mind. He wasn't going to let her down again.

Making his way to the computers, he hit a few buttons and pulled up the feed from both the mansion and the complex where Zod and his men were staying. He'd placed tiny cameras in each of them so they could keep an eye on what was going on.

Oliver drew in a deep breath when he saw Mercy appear on the video feed in the mansion's study.

"Construction will begin next week," she was telling a man whose back was to the camera.

He didn't have to see the man's face to know who it was. He tensed involuntarily.

"Excellent," Zod answered, nodding slightly with approval. "Good work, Ms. Mercer. Your loyalty will be rewarded."

Oliver's hand curled into a fist even as Mercy looked at Zod, a hint of uncertainty on her face.

"Appreciated, Major."

*****

To her surprise, younger Oliver hadn't demanded many answers from her on their way to the clock tower, but she had had a little more of an issue when she insisted on calling Dr. Hamilton and having him go over to check on him, but using older Oliver's advice, she didn't take no for an answer and by the time she was getting into the car after leaving Oliver upstairs, Dr. Hamilton was making his way into the clock tower.

Oliver had agreed on coming over to meet up with her at the watchtower once he had showered and Dr. Hamilton had checked on him, so that gave her time to regroup with future Oliver and ask him what they should do next.

She wasn't surprised to see him standing in front of the main computer tower, watching the feed from the cameras he had installed earlier that week, "he should be here in a couple of hours," she announced, dropping her purse on one of the chairs and walking over to where he was, "did you find anything?"

"You could say that," he answered grimly, glancing at her sideways. "Construction on the towers starts next week." He drew in a breath and let it out slowly, raking a hand through his hair. "Mercy just informed Zod of it."

She moved to stand next to him and frowned, looking from his face to the screen, "well, that gives us a week to stop it."

Oliver nodded slightly, rubbing the back of his neck. "I just want it to be over," he murmured.

Her face fell a little at his words and she reached to rub a hand over his back, her chest tight again, seemed to be that way a lot when she was around him, he sounded to tired, like he barely had the strength to keep going, "it will be over soon."

He shut his eyes, letting his head fall forward to rest on his chest as her touch soothed him. "Promise?" he whispered.

Without thinking about it, she stepped closer and moved to stand in front of him, looking up at him for a second before wrapping her arms around him carefully, "I'll do my best to make sure it is," it was as close of a promise as she wanted to make him, he had enough disappointments as it was, he didn't need her to break a promise to him on top of it.

He rested his forehead against hers, drawing in a deep breath as his arms moved to return the hug. Without thinking about it, he lifted one hand to her cheek. "You've always been the strong one here."

Pursing her lips together, she looked up at him and moved a hand to rest on his side, frowning and looking down when she felt something wet under her hand, her eyes widening at the red stain on his shirt, "Oliver, you're bleeding," she looked up at him, alarmed then wrapped her arm around the side that wasn't injured and started pulling him upstairs, "you need to lay down so I can look at it."

"I'm okay, Chloe," he told her even as she guided him toward the stairs and up to the bed. "I don't wanna get blood on your bed."

"The bed is the least of my worries right now, Oliver," she said as she sat him down on it, "but if it makes you feel any better, I'll go get a towel."

He nodded slightly, watching her intensely. "Sorry to be so much trouble." He met her eyes, offering her an apologetic look.

She stepped over to the laundry basked that was in a corner and came back a second later, placing the towel on the bed before gently pushing him to lay down over it, "so much trouble, coming back from the future just to protect me," she said with a soft smile.

The breath caught in his throat at the sight of that smile, and he couldn't help but smile back. "You're worth it," he whispered.

She felt her cheeks getting warm, between that look on his face and his words, there wasn't much she could do to prevent it. Carefully, she climbed on the bed and sat down next to him, her eyes going back to his shirt and just as she was about to reach for it, she paused and looked back at him, "do you mind if I..."

"Go ahead," he murmured, meeting her eyes for a brief moment, then closing them.

Nodding, she pulled his shirt up carefully, wincing, "you ripped your stitches," she told him with a frown, lifting an edge of the towel and drying the area around the wound, "Dr. Hamilton is with the other Oliver, but I will have him come by when he is done."

Oliver opened his eyes to gaze at her, watching her as she gently cleaned the wound as best she could. "Does he know?" he asked softly, unsure if she had explained the situation to Emil. He knew, of course, that the man was capable of dealing with odd situations, considering he was the doctor to the entire Justice League, and had been privy to a lot of strangeness. But even he wasn't sure how the man would react to the concept of time-traveling.

"He knows you two are different people," she told him, glancing up at him before turning back down to the wound, "and he knows not to mention you to him, but that's all I told him." Chloe raised her eyebrows, "he knows better than to ask questions."

This time the smile that touched his lips was one of amusement. "I take it you've been keeping everyone in line." There's a hint of teasing in his tone.

Smiling softly, she shrugged a shoulder and reached inside her pocket for her cellphone, "I'm doing what I can."

"You're doing more than you know."

After a quick conversation with Dr. Hamilton, who was still at the clock tower, she hung up the phone and turned back to Oliver, "he's almost done there, he'll be here in about half an hour, he said you shouldn't move, not even sit up."

Oliver sighed softly, closing his eyes for a moment. "We don't have time for this," he said quietly. "Every minute spent on frivolous things is another minute we waste when we could be stopping Zod and Mercy."

Without thinking about it, she reached up and brushed a hand over his hair, "we're watching them and we have to plan the best way break into the complex and attack Zod, but I'm not that good at hand-to-hand, Oliver and you are hurt, going in there like this is gonna do nothing more than to get us killed."

"When this is all over...you make him teach you," he said quietly. "The other me. You never know when it might come in handy."

"Assuming he will still be talking to me when it's over," she said, smiling a little.

"He will," Oliver murmured. "You're the only one with the ability to get through to him," he said seriously.

Chloe shook her head a little and moved to lay down next to him, "I'm not sure about that, we're not even really close friends, Oliver, we're definitely not like you and your Chloe."

"We weren't at first, either." He exhaled slowly, turning his head to look at her intently. "But even before she saved my life..." He paused for a moment. "I knew how alike we were. And even in the beginning, before Zod and the end of the world, I felt a connection to her that I was scared of."

She smiled a little at his words and shrugged a shoulder, "that's because you were falling for her."

Oliver gazed at her intensely. "Exactly," he said meaningfully.

She knew exactly what he was trying to tell her with the way he was looking at her but she knew better than that. Present Oliver had never looked at her that way and she really didn't expect him ever to, but she didn't want to say anything to this Oliver, she didn't want him to feel like he had to prove something to her so she just pursed her lips into a smile and shrugged softly in response.

He propped himself up on an elbow to look at her seriously. "When I was in the basement of the Talon that day, with Jimmy and Davis Bloome." He licked his dry lips. "And he was talking to you on the phone. When I realized you were on your way there, I was terrified. More terrified than I'd ever been until..." He shut his eyes for a moment. "Because I was afraid he'd hurt you. I didn't care what he did to me, or even to Jimmy. I was worried for you."

Sitting up, she took placed an extra pillow under his head and gently laid him back down against it, "I believe you, Oliver, but that doesn't mean that this Oliver feels the same way." She said quietly, frowning as she remember how close she had been of losing more than Jimmy.

He reached out and touched her face without thinking about it. "You don't understand," he said quietly. "Your Oliver is me, Chloe. He's just a little younger. The only difference is, he won't be facing the end of the world by the hands of Kandorians."

Chloe shrugged a shoulder, not at all bothered by his touch, "things are different already, you being here, the way I found the other Oliver, us stopping the Kandorians before they can do anything, it's not exactly the same reality, and the little things make a big difference, at least, they are supposed to."

Oliver considered that for a moment, nodding slightly at the truth in her words, unconsciously stroking his thumb over her cheek. "Then I feel sorry for him." His voice was soft.

With a nod, she smiled softly at him, "thank you."

He searched her eyes. They were so familiar he found himself wanting to sink into their depths and lose himself within them.

She watched him back for a moment then moved to lay back down next not him, not knowing what to do with the way he kept looking at her, "what are we going to do when he gets here?"

"I'll have to stay out of sight," he said softly. "And you'll have to play on his sense of guilt to get him to stay."

Making a face, she nodded a little, "I'm hoping I won't have to go too far with it, you said he already feels guilty as it is, right?"

"It won't be hard," he said gently. "Just let him know you've been alone. That's all it'll take." That much he knew for sure.

Chloe hadn't really thought that way before, sure, she felt lonely every now and then, but she hadn't thought of herself as 'alone' and now that he mentioned it, she guessed she had been, at least until Lois got back, but even now, Lois was so obsessed by trying to find the Blur, she had only talked to her a couple of times.

"I can do that."

"I'm sorry we left you," he said quietly. "We didn't know Clark had..." He closed his eyes for a moment, grimacing a little as his stomach throbbed painfully. "That he had turned on you."

"You have nothing to apologize for," she said quietly, rubbing a hand over his arm, frowning in concern when she noticed him grimacing, "and Clark is doing what he things he's supposed to be doing."

"He's wrong," he murmured, keeping his eyes shut. "He wasn't supposed to walk away from the one person who's always been there for him." He paused. "You've sacrificed so much for him. For all of us. And I don't think he even realizes it." His voice grew softer.

Frowning softly, she shook her head, taking a deep breath and looking down at her hand that was over his arm, "I'm doing what I believe is better for everyone, Oliver, just like everyone else."

"I know," he whispered, his breathing beginning to even out. "It's who you are."

Chloe kept on rubbing her hand over his arm when she heard his breathing even, "it's who we all are."

* * *

"Chloe?" A couple hours later, young Oliver stepped off the elevator and into the Watchtower, looking around with a slightly dazed expression on his face.

She hadn't meant to fall asleep, but watching Oliver sleeping so peacefully, she just couldn't help herself. When she heard him calling her name, however, she sat up instantly, "what?" She answered quietly, frowning as she blinked and looked down at him only to see that he was still asleep, she smiled a little at the clean bandages that were covering his wound and made a mental note to thank Dr. Hamilton for stopping by.

It wasn't until she heard her name being called again that she realized it _had_ been Oliver that was calling her, just not this Oliver. Getting up quickly, she ran her fingers through her hair and made her way towards the stairs, hoping she looked presentable enough.

"Quite a setup you have here," he said, still looking around as she descended the stairs. "I'm impressed."

"Courtesy of Queen Industries."

Oliver turned to look at her, not really surprised by that information. "Are you going to tell me what it is you need my help with?"

She took a deep breath and made her way to the bottom of the stairs, looking at him, "there are some things I won't be able to tell you for some time," she told him, glancing towards the top of the stairs before glancing at him again.

He arched an eyebrow at that. "Is this like some fancy game of Clue?" he asked. "Because I'll tell you right now, it was probably Colonel Mustard in the library with a candlestick."

Smirking softly, she cocked her head, "sense of humor, I guess that's a good start."

Oliver rolled his eyes. "I'm here. What do you need my help with?" This time his voice was quiet. He drew in a breath and moved to sit down in one of the rolling chairs by the computer terminal. He watched her intensely.

Moving over to where he was, she sat down across from him and nodded, "have you ever heard about Zod?"

He cocked his head to the side, his eyebrows furrowing. "Can't say that I have."

With a deep breath, she leaned back against her chair and slowly, started explaining to him what had happened on Dark Thrusday and about Zod's connection with Braniac and eventually, she got into the fact that Zod's clone was on Earth with an army of thousands, just waiting for the towers to go up, "and we can't let that happen. We have to stop Zod and stop the construction of the towers before it's too late."

Oliver stared at her for a long moment, feeling more than a little overwhelmed by all the information she'd just given him. "Okay, first, how do you know all of this? And second, where exactly, is Clark?" He shook his head.

"Clark is trying to figure out a way around this, around actually killing Zod and the others, but I have pretty good confirmation that that won't work," she said quietly, leaning her arms over her knees and looking up at him, "as for how I know all this, that's the part I can't tell you about yet."

He fell silent, studying her. "Why me, Chloe? What about the others? AC? Bart? Vic? Dinah?"

"They left too." She said quietly, holding his gaze.

Oliver blinked. "What? What do you mean?"

"I haven't heard from them since Jimmy's funeral." It wasn't a lie. She had been focusing on finding Oliver and Lois, but the others hadn't contacted her either.

"And you and Clark haven't..." He swallowed hard. "He left after too?"

All she did was nod in response, watching him.

His expression was stricken, guilt flooding his eyes. "Chloe. I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"I know you didn't," she said quietly, feeling bad for guilt tripping him like that, but at least, it seemed to be working. Just like the older Oliver told her it would.

He shut his eyes, rubbing his hands over his face. "So what do we do?" he asked quietly.

"We kill Zod." She said simply, glancing towards the top of the stairs again.

Oliver followed her gaze, suddenly looking uneasy. "Uh, he's not upstairs, right?"

Blinking, she turned to look at him, smiling a little at the question, "trust me, if he was, I wouldn't need your help."

"But someone is up there." It wasn't a question. The way she kept glancing toward the stairs was a dead giveaway.

"Yes," she said sincerely, watching him, "and whatever happens, you _cannot_ go up there."

Oliver frowned, turning his gaze back to her. He hesitantly reached out and touched her arm. "Are you in trouble?"

Chloe raised her eyebrows a little, looking at him, a little surprised by his touch and the worry in his voice, "no, I'm not, but this is serious, Oliver, there is no telling what could happen if you went upstairs."

Sensing the seriousness in her statement, he nodded slightly. "Okay, I won't go upstairs." He drew in a breath and let it out slowly. "So we kill Zod. I guess that means we need to find him first, right?" He rose to his feet, rubbing the back of his neck. "Do we have any idea where he might be? Is he even in Kansas?"

"He's in Smallville." She said carefully, watching him closely, "in a complex not far from the Luthor Mansion."

He frowned a little. "You went there?"

"Not yet."

"Oh." He paused. "So this is one of those things you can't tell me yet."

Chloe pursed her lips together and nodded, it felt silly to keep some of those details from him, but if the other Oliver felt like it was best for him to focus on helping her and killing Zod and it seemed pretty important that he didn't know Tess was involved until he had to, so she was trying to keep as many details from him as possible.

Oliver raked a hand through his hair warily. "All right. So I guess I'd better get my gear."

"Right," she frowned, "you don't _happen_ to have a spare, do you?"

He blinked at the question. "Sorry?"

"Of your gear, you do have two, right? I mean, what happens if one gets... messed up during a fight?" That could potentially be a problem.

He gave her an odd look. "I do, but are you trying to tell me something happened to the orignal?"

"Not exactly," she told him quietly, watching him, "but it's one of those things that you'll need a little bit longer for an explanation."

Oliver sighed very softly. "All right. I'll head to the clocktower and get the backup gear." He gazed at her for a moment. "You're sure you're okay?"

"I'm sure," she promised him, pausing for a second and watching him, "thank you for trusting me blindly like this, Oliver."

He paused at that, then simply nodded and headed for the elevator.

With a deep breath, she nodded softly and watched him go. She had expected something more from him, a bigger reaction, but then, she had to remind herself that he and future Oliver were two very different people.


	10. Through a Glass, Darkly

Title: Through a Glass, Darkly  
Rated: PG-13  
Authors: [](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/profile)[**dl_greenarrow**](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/) and [](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/profile)[**chloeas**](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/)  
Spoilers: Up for and including all of Pandora from season 9, though this is very, very AU.  
Pairing: Chloe/Oliver.

[Prologue](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/366281.html) | [Chapter One](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/369460.html) | [Chapter Two](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/370747.html) | [Chapter Three](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/373001.html) | [Chapter Four](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/375666.html) | [Chapter Five](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/376740.html) | [Chapter Six](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/379343.html) | [Chapter Seven](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/379449.html) | [Chapter Eight](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/380836.html)

 

They only had a few more days before the construction of the towers began and they couldn't risk wasting time anymore, they had to start planning how they were going to do this.

Through the cameras Oliver had installed a few days prior, they knew Tess and Zod were supposed to have a meeting at ten PM on Wednesday night, most of Zod's soldiers were supposed to be starting working on the tower by then so that would have been the perfect opening for them to break in.

"So Zod is our first target and then the crystal should take care of the rest." She summarized after they agreed on it.

The older Oliver nodded slightly in agreement. "In theory," he said softly. "If not, we're going to be dealing with a whole lot of pissed off Kandorian's when they find out their leader's dead." He drew in a breath and released it slowly.

"Which is why we're doing this while most of them are in Metropolis," she reminded him, "all we really have to worry about are a couple of guards and..." she looked up at him, raising her eyebrows a little, "Tess." She said quietly.

Oliver closed his eyes for a moment, his expression stricken. "Yes."

Sighing softly, she placed a hand over his arm, looking at him with concern, "you don't _have_ to do this, Oliver."

He sniffed and opened his eyes to look at her, his eyes watery. "Yes, I do," he whispered.

Pursing her lips together, she hesitated before sliding her hand down his arm and linking her fingers with his, "it will be over soon."

Oliver nodded quickly, looking down at their hands for a long moment, then lifting his gaze to hers once more. "I know."

Chloe held his gaze for a moment then squeezed his hand before letting go of it and turning towards her desk, putting the papers away before looking at him, "we have a plan, now I say we relax for a change."

He watched her, then nodded slightly. "What do you have in mind?" he asked softly, rising to his feet.

"Maybe a movie and some take out? Or we can go out to dinner if you want to," since he came back, Oliver hadn't really wanted to get out of the watchtower unless it was for a mission-related reason.

"I'd rather just stay here," Oliver said quietly, shaking his head. "Unless you want to go out." He moved closer to her, gazing at her intently. "If you want to, we can."

Looking up at him, she shook her head, smiling softly, "staying here works, do you have any movie preferences?"

"No. You can pick. I uh...I couldn't tell you the last time I saw a movie." He smiled faintly.

"I figured as much."

"What sounds good to eat? I'll call out," he offered, glancing around and spotting the phone book on the desk.

"I'll pick the movie, you pick the food," she told him as she made her way to the small cabinet by the TV that held her limited collection of DVDs, most of her titles were still at the apartment above the Talon.

"You like Chinese, right?" he asked, picking up the phone book.

"Yep," she told him, opening the cabinet, "anything with noodles."

Oliver smiled at that, hoping the little place on the corner of Main and Water was still in business. It hadn't, of course, been in his world for the last year. But he was happily surprised to find it was in business, and he ordered them food. The lady on the other end of the line assured him that the food would arrive in less than thirty minutes. Satisfied, he set the phone and the phone book down once more before turning to watch her.

She had just placed the DVD into the player and turned to look up at him again, "I don't suppose you've seen the Hangover? According to Lois, it's the best movie of 2009." She told him with a smiled.

"No, I haven't." He shook his head a little, vaguely remembering the title from months and months ago, before the takeover.

"It's amusing and I'm sure you'll be able to relate to parts of it," she teased lightly, moving to sit down on the couch before patting it for him to join her, it was weird how comfortable she felt around this Oliver, but it didn't seem to bother him, so she wasn't about to let it bother her, "how long before the food gets here?"

He couldn't help but chuckle at her first remark. He sat down next to her without hesitation. "Less than thirty minutes or it's free, apparently." He smiled at her.

After crossing her legs over the couch, she nodded, "that's pretty fast, I guess we can wait for the food and then start the movie?"

"Sounds good to me," he agreed, leaning back against the cushions and resting his head on the top of them, gazing at her. He swallowed hard, hesitantly reaching out and resting a hand on her arm. "I never told her."

Chloe raised her eyebrows a little and turned slightly towards him, "told her what?"

"That I loved her," he admitted in a whisper. "I never said the words. Neither of us did. We just...knew." His eyes were dark with emotion. "But now I wish..."

Frowning slightly, she linked her arm with his and shifted closer, "did you choose not to say it?" She asked quietly.

He was quiet for a moment. "I think we were both scared _to_ say it. Like if we said it out loud, we'd be cursed. I guess we were anyway."

Pursing her lips together, she sighed deeply, watching him, "how did it happen? I mean, things between the two of you, how did you get together?"

Oliver let his eyes drift shut, exhaling slowly. "It was after we found out about AC and Dinah." His breath caught in his throat. "Bart and Victor, they were...killed early on. It was the four of us for awhile, but a mission went wrong. She thought it was her fault." He swallowed past the lump in his throat. "It just sort of happened. I think it started out as comfort at first. But then it kept happening. It was the only thing that kept me going at times. Knowing I'd have that time with her, every night. Just the two of us. And it just got to be much more than comfort. I felt it. She did, too. But we knew that at any time, either one of us could end up not coming back. I think that's what scared us." When he opened his eyes again, a tear slid down his cheek, and he reached up to wipe it away.

Her own eyes got teary as he spoke, she could feel his pain through his words, "I can't imagine how hard it must have been" she told him quietly, "losing everyone," she could only imagine the guilt the other Chloe felt, watching all of them die under her command, she would probably be blaming herself too.

"What was she like?" She asked quietly, watching him. Because the way he talked about the other Chloe, she sounded so much stronger, so much more powerful than she felt.

A small smile touched his lips, but his eyes were haunted. "She was incredible," he whispered. "She did what had to be done. She put together a band of resistance fighters almost immediately when Zod took control. She saved countless humans from being enslaved, myself included. Saved even more from death. She put her entire self into the fight. There was no holding back." He turned his head to look at her in the semi-dark of the Watchtower. "I always knew if we managed to turn things over, it would be because of her. So many people were ready to give up, but she had this way of motivating them, and keeping them busy, giving them hope. She was a better leader than I ever could have been." His voice was pained. "But at night...when it was just us...she was so sad. She was always questioning herself, wondering if she was doing the right things. And when we lost one of our own, she held it together in front of the others, but it nearly killed her. She felt all of them. Every one." Another tear trickled down his face and this time he didn't bother trying to brush it away.

She sniffed quietly and hugged his arm to her, "I'm sure having you there with her made it more bearable, having someone to talk to," she said quietly, watching him.

"I hope so. But somehow it just doesn't seem like it was enough." His voice was strained and he shifted closer to her, resting his head against hers as he squeezed his eyes shut tightly, holding his breath as he fought the urge to completely breakdown.

Shaking her head, she shifted, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him down until his head was on her shoulder, "I can only speak for myself, but having someone with me, who knows what I'm doing, who is willing to go along with it and offer me support when I need it, no matter what it's about, is one of the most important things for me. And the way _you_ look at me, Oliver, if you looked at her with half that intensity, half that trust and admiration, I _know_ you were the one giving her strength to keep going."

He buried his face against her neck, his body shuddering involuntarily. He wrapped his arm around her waist, holding onto her tightly, and giving up the fight for the time being. Tears made their way down his face, dripping down his skin and onto hers. "I loved her," he whispered.

She couldn't stop her own tears from rolling down her cheek as she held him to her tightly, a hand rubbing over his back as she cupped the back of his head with her other one, "and I have no doubt she loved you," she hated that that was the best she could do for him, but she meant it, she didn't think her other self would have allowed Oliver in so deep if she didn't love him, Chloe just wasn't like that, no matter what version of herself, "and she was incredibly lucky to have you."

Oliver relaxed in her arms, though he still held onto her tightly, swallowing hard as he took slow, deep breaths to calm himself. He slowly lifted his head from her shoulder, and leaned it against hers once more.

Chloe ran her fingers through his head and nodded a little, "let it out," she told him quietly.

He shut his eyes once more and pressed a tender kiss to her forehead. "Thank you," he whispered.

"You have nothing to thank me for," she kept her voice quiet as she spoke, still running her fingers through his hair, she smiled softly, "I'm pretty sure she'd kick my ass if I didn't take care of you anyway." She joked quietly.

A soft sound escaped him--something between a laugh and a sob. He slid his hand up and into her hair, pulling her closer so he was holding her, too.

Smiling softly, she shifted closer to him, bending her knees sideways and leaning into him.

Oliver relaxed more at the embrace, feeling her heartbeat against his chest. Alive. She wasn't the same Chloe he'd known, but she was Chloe, all the same. And she was alive. And that was what mattered. And tomorrow they would stop Zod once and for all.

And then it would be over.

*****

Despite the fact that they were about to go on a mission that could literally change their futures, Chloe had had one of the best nights of sleep in a long time, Oliver just had a way of making her comfortable and having his arms around her just felt really safe.

But she shouldn't focus on that, they had a mission ahead of them, Oliver had gone out for a few supplies and in the mean while, present Oliver was coming over so Chloe could update him on their mission.

"Chloe?" There was a hint of alarm in Oliver's voice as he made his way into the Watchtower. "Who just took off on my _bike_?" His eyes were wide.

Chloe kept her back to the door for as long as she could after she heard the question, after a full moment, though, when she turned to face him again, the best and only response she could think of still was, "huh?"

He stared at her. "Chloe. My bike." He gestured toward the elevator, shaking his head. "Either you just let your mystery guest take off on it or it was stolen!"

"Option A," she told him quietly, raising her eyebrows, "but he's really good with bikes, so, I'm sure it will be back in one piece."

Oliver gaped at her. "Okay, seriously? I've been a really good sport about all of this the last few days, but you're going to have to give me more than 'he's really good with bikes.'" He folded his arms across his chest.

Sighing quietly, Chloe studied him for a moment, "I don't know if this is a good idea, Oliver, I mean we have a huge mission to focus on tonight and this guy... what I could tell you about him, it's pretty mind boggling."

"Chloe, we're talking about a thousand aliens from another planet building towers to change the color of the sun and take over the earth. After that, things are just mediocre."

He had a point and she couldn't really argue with it, but more than that, he was already so involved in this whole thing, he really had the right to know what was going on.

"Okay," she told him after a moment of consideration then motioned to the chair next to hers, "take a seat, but I will tell you now, aliens will sound simple compared to this."

Oliver looked at her skeptically, but sat down beside her anyway. "All right."

With a deep breath, she got up, mostly because she couldn't stand to sit down, "the person you saw on your bike was... you." She paused, watching his face, "from the future." It sounded like a bad sci-fi movie, but so did their lives on a daily basis.

He chuckled at that. "All right, now seriously. Who's on my bike, Chloe?"

She gave him a look and leaned back against her desk, cocking her head to the side and just staring at him.

The smile slipped from his face. "Me from the future. You're serious." He stared at her.

Chloe nodded a little, "I told you it was weirder than aliens," she said with a shrug and pushed herself from the desk, "which is why I've been making sure you don't see him, he doesn't know what could happen if you saw each other."

Oliver fell silent, dumbstruck and sat back in the chair slowly.

"He has been telling me everything and he knows it all because he has lived through it before." Her voice was quiet as she spoke, doing her best not to give him too much information at once.

He rubbed a hand over his face. "You're right. This is officially weirder than aliens." He shook his head a little. "All right, so why wasn't Clark the one to come back and fix things? Why me--uh, my future self?" he asked uncertainly.

Blinking, Chloe cocked her head, looking at him curiously, "I... never asked him that." Of course, she knew why Oliver had decided to come in the first place, but she didn't know why Clark hadn't come with him.

He frowned a little at that. "Huh. And he thinks that, we'll what? Explode if we see each other?"

"Who knows?" She told him, "there are different theories about what would happen when it comes to breaking time-space continuum and since we need both of you to get through this mission, it's better not to risk it."

"Right, okay. I guess I can't call the police and tell them that I stole my own bike." There was a hint of amusement in his voice. "Although I could just see the headlines from that."

Chloe couldn't help but smile softly at that, "personally I'd like to see you bailing yourself out."

He grinned. "I actually could. Well. I have the funds anyway. Might need a little assistance from someone on the outside for the actual bailing."

"I guess I could give you a hand with that."

Oliver met her eyes and smiled faintly. "All right, so fill me in on this mission."

She raised her eyebrows a little at the look on his face, she had been spending so much time with future Oliver lately, she had started picking up on the small changes in his expression and moods easily and it was nice to know that she had managed to get this Oliver to relax.

After explaining him the details of the mission to him, she finished with, "so basically we will go in separately from him and meet up inside."

"All right, but what about the whole us not seeing each other thing?" he asked uncertainly. "I really don't want to explode or...vanish or whatever."

"Well, your faces will be covered," she reminded him, "and now that you know, make a point of not looking directly at him."

"Right. Okay." He drew in a breath and let it out slowly. "Let's do this."

Chloe nodded and pushed herself from the desk, "I'll go change and we'll leave."

"All right. Are we riding together or separately?" he asked uncertainly as he watched her head toward the stairs.

"Well, we kinda have to go together since he has your bike," she reminded him, smirking a little before continuing towards the upstairs area.

Oliver shook his head, amused as he watched her go. Then he took a deep breath and let it out slowly, wondering if their lives would ever be normal.


	11. Through a Glass, Darkly

Title: Through a Glass, Darkly  
Rated: PG-13  
Authors: [](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/profile)[**dl_greenarrow**](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/) and [](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/profile)[**chloeas**](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/)  
Spoilers: Up for and including all of Pandora from season 9, though this is very, very AU.  
Pairing: Chloe/Oliver.

[Prologue](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/366281.html) | [One](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/369460.html) | [Two](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/370747.html) | [Three](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/373001.html) | [Four](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/375666.html) | [Five](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/376740.html) | [Six](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/379343.html) | [Seven](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/379449.html) | [Eight](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/380836.html) | [Nine](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/384196.html)

Oliver was perched beside the glass ceiling over the study of the Luthor mansion, peering down inside intently. His heart was pounding heavily in his chest and he fought against the wave of deja vu he was already experiencing. He'd done this exact thing with Chloe just a few days ago. The day before she died. He felt his chest tighten painfully and he forced himself to take a deep breath, letting it out slowly in order to regain his focus.

He waited tensely, waiting for his younger self and Chloe to show up. What he'd really wanted was to keep Chloe away from this all together. But like the Chloe he'd spent the last several months with, her younger self was every bit as determined and stubborn as she'd been.

He watched, tensing more as Zod entered the study and he began to talk with Mercy. He pulled an arrow from his quiver, preparing himself as best he could for what was about to go down.

Chloe and Oliver were taking the long way in through the back door, on a week night most of the mansion staff left after dinner and they had heard Tess telling Zod that they would have their privacy.

As expected, they ran into a couple of security guards on the third floor corridor but in complete silent, Oliver shot both men with tranquilizer arrows and they stopped just outside the door. Pulling the communicator close to her mouth Chloe spoke quietly, "we're in position."

On the roof, he nodded slightly. "On my count. One. Two." He rose to his feet, putting his foot on the glass. "Three!" He crashed through the glass ceiling, holding onto the repel line secured to the roof. A familiar rush of adrenaline surged through him.

She counted down with her fingers to the younger Oliver and heard as the window crashed at the exact same time the door was kicked opened, with her heart pounding against her chest, she followed Oliver in, "don't move," she spoke through a voice distorter just like the one the Olivers used for Arrow, a gun pointed at Zod as she watched the younger Oliver make his way to the vault that was hidden behind the wall in the study where they knew the crystal would be.

"What the hell is this?" Tess demanded, shock clear on her features.

The older Oliver aimed his arrow at Zod's heart. "This is us saving the world from a reign of terror." He let the arrow fly and instantly the other man hit the ground.

It all happened so fast, Chloe's eyes were on Zod as he hit the ground but out of the corner of her eyes, she saw rapid movements from Tess' side of the desk and just as she pointed her gun towards the other woman, she heard the deafening noise of a gun being fired, her heart sped up when she saw that Tess' gun was pointed in the direction of the older Oliver and without thinking about it, she aimed at the woman and fired her own gun, her eyes wide, her heart beating so fast, she felt like it was going to burst right through her chest.

Younger Oliver spun around in time to see Tess both shoot his older self and get shot herself and he froze, his eyes wide.

Older Oliver lay on the ground, blood gushing from a bullet hole in his stomach, his breathing ragged. He reached down and placed his hand over the wound, his face already paling. It occurred to him idly that it was the same spot that Alia had stabbed Chloe, and he found that oddly appropriate.

When Tess fell to the ground, Chloe blinked, her hands shaking and she looked down at the gun that she was holding then in the direction of the younger Oliver, feeling disoriented for a second, before searching the room for the older Oliver.

Her heart, that had been going a hundred times faster than usual with the adrenalin completely stopped when she saw the man laying on the floor, without thinking about anything else, she rushed to his side and knelt down next to him, pulling the voice distorter and the mask away from her mouth, "Oliver," she breathed, wrapping her arms around him and gathering him up on her lap, "Oliver, talk to me."

He gasped at the change in position, pain shooting through him. "Chloe." He gripped onto her arm, hand slick with blood. "Did we stop them?" he whispered, looking up at her.

Chloe hugged him to her, her stomach turning when she saw the blood all over his hand, "Zod and Tess are both dead," she whispered, her eyes tearing up as she glanced at both bodies before looking down at him, "you have to stay with me, Oliver, we'll get you help."

Oliver swallowed hard, clutching onto her. "The crystal," he said, his voice thick. "We have to get it."

"Oliver?" She called breathlessly in the direction of the younger Oliver, "did-" her voice broke with a quiet sob, "did you you get the crystal?"

Still in shock himself, he quickly opened the vault and grabbed hold of it. "I've got it," he said, his voice shaken. He dropped it onto the floor and crashed the heel of his boot down on it, shattering it into pieces. "It's gone."

"Did you hear that?" She looked down at the older Oliver, she could feel his body starting to shake, he was losing too much blood, "it's gone, it's been destroyed, we can go, we'll find you help, it's over," even as she spoke, she started pulling him tighter in her arms, trying to hold him firmly so they could leave.

He shuddered slightly, feeling coldness sweep over him. "It's over," he whispered, his grip on her loosening just a little. "We made it." He smiled a little, his eyelids beginning to feel heavy.

"We did," she brushed a shaky hand over his cheek, pushing his hood away, a nervous smile on her lips, as tears streamed down her face, "now you have to stay with me, okay?"

"I don't think...this world's...big enough for two of me," he whispered, feeling one of her tears splash down onto his face. "It's okay. Don't cry."

Chloe sobbed quietly and shook her head, holding on to him tighter, "no, it's okay," she pleaded, glancing at the younger Oliver before looking back down at the older one, "you two are seeing each other and nothing is happening, you can stay, we'll figure it out, Oliver," sobs broke through her as she felt him getting heavier in her arms, "please."

He closed his eyes for a moment, a tear trickling down his face, as well. "Love you. I love you," he murmured, feeling his limbs starting to go numb. "I'm sorry I didn't say it sooner."

Leaning down, she pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth, tasting her own tears and his blood as she did, "I love you too," she whispered quietly between sobs, holding him tightly to her chest, "you'll be with her now."

Oliver relaxed at the feel of her lips against his, and he grew limp in her arms. He could rest now. The mission was over.

For a moment, she just held on to him, sobbing quietly as she did, but then she felt him getting lighter and lighter and when she pulled her head back, she gasped, watching as he started to fade right in her arms.

Rooted to the floor several feet away, Oliver Queen stared in shock over the entire scene that had just unfolded in front of him. His older self had been shot, and had died in Chloe's arms before completely vanishing. Even from where he stood, he could read the devastation on Chloe's face and he swallowed hard, slowly moving over to her. "Chloe?" he whispered, his voice barely audible.

Still confused, she blinked and looked up at Oliver, forgetting for a full moment that he was there with them, another quiet sob escaped her and she looked down at her now empty lap, feeling completely lost as she tried to process what had happened.

His heart was beating heavily in his chest as he knelt down beside her. "Chloe, we have to go," he whispered. His mind was racing. The police had probably already been notified. Without hesitation, he reached out and picked up the gun she'd used and tucked it into his belt after putting the safety on. Then he grabbed an EMP arrow from his quiver, firing it at the security camera. They'd disabled the feed on the way in, but just in case it was on some sort of fail-safe backup, he didn't want to take any chances. When he realized she was still sitting on the floor, he quickly moved over to her. "Chloe?"

Swallowing, Chloe blinked, looking up at him then getting up, it wasn't until she saw the lifeless bodies of both Zod and Tess that she managed to snap out of it, "we have to go," she told him breathlessly, reaching for his arm, not even realizing her hand was covered in blood, "we have to get out of here."

He reached out without thinking about it and touched her cheek. "I know." He let his hand drop to grab hers and quickly led them out of the study and down the silent corridors toward the exit, not stopping until they were outside and at her car. "Give me the keys," he said urgently.

Without questioning him, she reached inside her pocket and pulled the keys out, handing them to him wordlessly.

Oliver knew she was in shock and he guided her over to the passenger side of the car, opening the door and helping her inside it. He stretched the seatbelt across her and buckled it, grimacing at all of the blood staining her clothes and hands. Swallowing hard, he made his way to the driver's side, crawled in, jammed the keys in the ignition and revved the engine. Forcing himself to breathe, he pulled the car out of the driveway and onto the road, glancing at her sideways with worry as he pushed his foot hard onto the accelerator. "Are you with me?"

Chloe nodded, taking a couple of deep breaths as she stared at the road for a long moment before glancing at him, "you... you saw it too, right? You saw him?"

"I saw him," he murmured, her words confirming that it had all actually happened and he wasn't just losing his mind.

Sighing deeply, she nodded, leaning against the seat and turning back to look at the road, still trying to process everything that had happened at the mansion, "are we safe?"

Oliver swallowed hard. "I think so," he said quietly, his mind going over every detail and trying to make sure they hadn't left behind anything incriminating. Christ, he thought, his grip tightening on the wheel. What the hell had just happened? He didn't understand it. It didn't even make _sense_. Trying to push that particular thought away from the time being, he focused on driving.

They made it back to the Watchtower in record time and he drew in a breath and let it out slowly as he shut off the car engine. He sat there silent for a moment before looking over at her, realizing she was in a daze. He climbed out of the car wordlessly, moving over to the passenger side and opening the door. He removed the seatbelt from her and hesitated a moment before picking her up.

Unconsciously, Chloe wrapped her arms around him as soon as he picked her up and held on to him tightly as he carried her into the elevator, tears starting to roll down her cheek again.

He felt his chest tighten at the sight of her tears. "I've got you," he whispered, kissing her temple without thinking about it as he waited for the elevator to reach the right floor.

Sobbing silently, she turned to lay her face on his shoulder and held on to him tighter, "don't leave."

"I won't," he whispered, tightening his arms around her a little, as well. "I'm not going anywhere." The elevator doors slid open and he carried her across the room and over to the sofa, sitting down with her in his lap. "I've got you."

She kept her arms tight around him, adjusting over his lap when he sat down, she was quiet for a long moment, just holding on to him, but at some point, and she didn't know when it was, she started replaying everything that had happened in that study and when she did, she sat up, her eyes wide as she looked down at him, "I killed her."

"Chloe," he whispered, quickly reaching up to touch her cheek. "Shh. Come on. Just rest. We'll...deal with it later." He swallowed hard against the lump in his throat.

Sighing deeply, she leaned into his touch, closing her eyes and letting her head drop slightly, she felt exhausted and her head felt foggy, like all that had happened was just a bad dream.

"Do you want to shower?" he whispered, not pulling away from her, his eyes filled with worry.

Chloe looked down at herself and nodded, frowning softly, "I'm covered in blood."

"I know," he said gently, smoothing the hair back from her eyes. He gazed at her a moment longer, then rose to his feet, picking her up once more and slowly heading up the stairs. He carefully set her on her feet just outside the bathroom. "I'll get you some clean clothes."

Nodding, she stepped into the bathroom, she didn't know how long she had been in there, but when she got out, she found him sitting down on the floor next to the bathroom door, "do you want to shower?"

"I don't have any extra clothes here," he said quietly, slowly rising to his feet.

"You do," she admitted quietly, she felt so exhausted, she could barely stand, "when he showed up, I went to the clock tower and picked a couple of t-shirts and pants for him."

Pausing for a second, she frowned, realizing he wasn't the other Oliver, "but if it'd make you uncomfortable, I understand," she added quietly.

"It wouldn't," he said just as quietly. Wordlessly, he wound an arm around her waist and guided her to the bed. "But you lie down. Just tell me where they are and I'll get them."

Normally, she would have argued, but she needed to lay down, "its in the closet, on the right."

"Okay." He moved over to the closet and found the clothes almost immediately, pulling them out and glancing at her for a moment. "I'll be out in a little bit. Just rest."

"Okay," she repeated quietly, pulling the covers tightly around herself.

Oliver exhaled slowly and headed into the bathroom, taking a quick but hot shower before pulling on the clean clothes and stepping back out. Chloe was lying in the same position she had been when he'd left her. Swallowing hard, he hesitantly moved over to the side of the bed and knelt down beside it so he was at eye level with her. "Can I get you anything?" he whispered.

"Lay down with me?" She asked uncertainly, looking at him but not moving otherwise. The last thing she wanted was to be alone.

He drew in a breath as he rose to his full height once more, then sat down on the edge of the bed for a moment before sprawling out beside her. He reached out and tucked some damp hair behind her ear. He had so many questions, but he couldn't ask them of her now. Not when she looked so fragile, like she might actually break.

Chloe looked at him for a long moment, her eyes getting warm with tears again as she reached for his hand and took it tightly in hers, hugging his hand to her chest before closing her eyes and letting out a deep, shaky sigh.

Oliver watched her silently, shifting closer to her. "Come here," he whispered, unable to see her in so much pain without trying to do something to help ease it.

Without opening her eyes, she shifted closer to him on the bed and wrapped her arm around him, crying quietly for a moment then taking a deep breath, "thank you for staying."

"I'll stay as long as you need," he whispered, gently stroking her hair.

Although she couldn't stop crying, exhausted as she was, she felt sleep starting to take over not long after he spoke.

He pressed a gentle kiss to the top of her head as she began to drift off, vowing silently to stay with her all night even if he didn't sleep. He simply held her, and waited for morning.


	12. Through a Glass, Darkly

Title: Through a Glass, Darkly  
Rated: PG-13  
Authors: [](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/profile)[**dl_greenarrow**](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/) and [](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/profile)[**chloeas**](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/)  
Spoilers: Up for and including all of Pandora from season 9, though this is very, very AU.  
Pairing: Chloe/Oliver.

[Prologue](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/366281.html) | [Chapter One](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/369460.html) | [Chapter Two](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/370747.html) | [Chapter Three](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/373001.html) | [Chapter Four](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/375666.html) | [Chapter Five](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/376740.html) | [Chapter Six](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/379343.html) | [Chapter Seven](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/379449.html) | [Chapter Eight](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/380836.html) | [Chapter Nine](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/384196.html) | [Chapter Ten](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/387539.html)

 

The next morning, when she woke up with his arm around her, for a long moment, she allowed herself to believe that it was all not true, that the future Oliver was still alive, that he would finally get a chance at living in a world where he didn't had to fight anymore and for that moment, she wasn't a murderer. But she knew that the second she opened her eyes, it would all be true again.

Slowly, she turned her head towards Oliver, not surprised to see him staring at her, watching her, she was surprised she had been able to sleep at all, but he seemed to be fully alert.

"Did you sleep?" She asked quietly anyway.

"I dozed," he said softly, gazing back at her intently. "How you feeling?"

"I'm okay," she answered without meeting his eyes and rubbing her hands over her face.

He knew that was far from the truth. He gently rubbed her back. "Everything's been taken care of." His voice was very quiet.

Her stomach turned a little at his words and she glanced quickly at him then nodded, "thank you."

Oliver felt his chest tighten at the stricken look on her face. "I'm sorry, Chloe."

Chloe shook her head and looked up at him, "I'm sorry," she said quietly before pushing herself up into a sitting position, "I'm sorry I dragged you into this mess and I'm sorry you had to clean up after it."

He sat up as well, sensing she was nearing panic. He quickly reached out and caught her hand. "Chloe, it's _me_."

"Exactly," she said quietly, holding on to his hand, but not looking at him, "I dragged you into it without telling you exactly what was going on and that wasn't fair to you."

"But you did it because I--uh, older me--said that was what was best, right?"

All she did was nod, "he didn't want to tell you some things, he said you weren't ready to hear about them, but I was the one who suggested asking you for help in the first place."

"My--he--agreed. And he was me, Chloe. Don't blame yourself here." He frowned, squeezing her hand gently.

With a deep breath, she nodded again, finally turning her head to look over at him.

"What can I do?" he asked quietly, uncertain.

"You've done more than enough," her voice was just above a whisper when she spoke.

"Somehow I don't think so." He drew in a breath and let it out slowly, still holding onto her hand. "Chloe, what...what happened?"

Confused by his question, she frowned slightly at him, "you didn't see it?"

"Not that part," he said softly. "The rest. I feel like I'm missing some important pieces to the puzzle."

"Oh," nodding a little, she shifted on the bed, "I'm not sure where to begin..." She knew she was going to have to tell him everything, but telling him about Oliver and his Chloe, about their feelings for each other, about everything they went through, it could easily make him uncomfortable.

Oliver studied her for a long moment. "He was in love with you." It wasn't a question. He was a perceptive guy, and even if he wasn't, he'd still heard his older self's words as he was dying. _Love you. I love you. I'm sorry I didn't say it sooner._

Her jaw tightened a little and she shook her head. She had no idea if he had heard anything that Oliver had said, but that answered that question, "he wasn't in love with _me_ ," she said quietly, watching him closely, "he was in love with his Chloe. The Chloe from his time."

He cocked his head to the side, studying her. "They were together?"

She nodded silently, pursing her lips together, "for months, apparently."

Oliver studied her for a moment, nodding a little as well and falling silent for a moment. He was afraid to ask the next question that was on his mind, but he forced himself to do so anyway. "What happened?"

"He never told me exactly how, but..." she shifted on the bed, turning a little more towards him, "they were fighting Zod and the others and they managed to shut down the towers, but before they lost their powers, one of the Kandorians killed her."

He held his breath without realizing it, swallowing hard. "He came back to save you," he murmured, beginning to put the pieces together.

Raising her eyebrows, she looked at him, a little surprised that he had concluded that so easily, "yeah..."

He met her eyes, holding her gaze for a moment and sensing her surprise. "I'm a smart guy on occasion." He smiled very faintly, then fell silent once more.

She returned the very faint smile with one of her own and squeezed his hand, her face falling again after a second, "he was just in so much pain, Oliver... so broken."

Oliver nodded slightly, his chest tight as he squeezed her hand in return. "Of course he was," he murmured.

"I just wanted to help him, to take care of him as well as I could and..." she shook her head, her eyes tearing up again.

Wordlessly he shifted closer to her, pulling her into his arms. "You did," he whispered.

Chloe leaned into him and sniffed quietly, closing her eyes and wrapping her arms around his, "do you think they are together?" It was a silly question, one he wouldn't have the answer anymore than she did, but she asked anyway, because she really wanted to believe they were, they deserved it.

"Yeah," he murmured, resting his chin on top of her head. "Yeah, I do." He closed his eyes, sighing softly as he rubbed her back.

Nodding, she started rubbing a hand over his arm, just leaning into him and feeling his arms around her, it felt safe, just like it had with the other version of him except she knew this Oliver was holding _her_ and not someone who looked like the woman he wanted in his arms.

"He loved her so much that he'd rather risk the world than live in one without her." His voice was quiet, his arms tightening around her slightly.

When he spoke, she opened her eyes and turned her head towards him, taking a deep breath and nodding slightly.

Oliver gazed at her intensely, falling silent.

Her eyes widened slightly when he looked at her, it was the same look she had seen in the other Oliver's eyes so many times in the past few days, except he wasn't looking at what she represented, he was looking at who she _was_.

After a seconds' hesitation, she lifted a hand and cupped his cheek gently, studying him closely as she did.

The breath caught in his throat and his gaze dropped to her lips for a moment before rising to meet her eyes once more. He lifted a hand to her face, as well, then slowly leaned in and kissed her softly, closing his eyes.

She returned the kiss just as softly but her heart was beating fast as she brushed her thumb over his cheek slowly. All of the times the Oliver from the future told her he had had feelings for her for a long time, she did her best to brush it off, mostly because she was afraid of believing him, of believing the possibility that _her_ Oliver would have felt the same way, but as he kissed her and she felt the intensity of that soft, simple kiss spreading all over her body, she started believing it could be true.

After a long moment, the kiss ended and he rested his forehead against hers, his hand gently cupping the back of her neck. "I know the feeling," he whispered almost inaudibly.

With a deep breath, she just watched him silently, trying to take it all in as she brushed her fingertips over his hair, she blinked, confused by his words, "what?"

"Rather risk the world than live without the person who means the most," he whispered, opening his eyes to look at her.

Chloe closed her eyes for a moment and shook her head, "lets hope we never have to."

Oliver pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. "Already did, apparently."

"As long as their future stays in our past," she whispered, wrapping her arms tightly around him. She never wanted him to suffer the way the other Oliver had.

He hugged her back just as tightly, swallowing hard. "Here's hoping."


	13. Through a Glass, Darkly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's some Clark bashing in this chapter. Just fyi.

Title: Through a Glass, Darkly  
Rated: R  
Authors: [](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/profile)[**dl_greenarrow**](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/) and [](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/profile)[**chloeas**](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/)  
Spoilers: Up for and including all of Pandora from season 9, though this is very, very AU.  
Pairing: Chloe/Oliver.  
Note: There's some Clark bashing in this chapter. Just fyi.

[Prologue](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/366281.html) | [One](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/369460.html) | [Two](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/370747.html) | [Three](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/373001.html) | [Four](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/375666.html) | [Five](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/376740.html) | [Six](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/379343.html) | [Seven](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/379449.html) | [Eight](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/380836.html) | [Nine](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/384196.html) | [Ten](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/387539.html) | [Eleven](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/390043.html)

 

For three days, neither of them left the Watchtower. They didn't work, other than for Oliver to contact Victor and Bart to make sure once more that everything at the mansion had been wiped clean of any evidence that might have incriminated Chloe in Mercy's death. Or him for Zod's. Although he hadn't actually killed the man himself, he was pretty certain that  
his future self's DNA would be an exact match to his own.

Victor had also scoured the property and located his motorcycle, returning it to the alley outside. Bart had brought him more clothes. Victor had also ran scans of the globe in search for any Kandorian's that might still be around, but much to all of their relief, there wasn't any. When Oliver had shattered the crystal beneath his boot, apparently it had zapped them back to wherever they'd come from--the past on Krypton or possibly the Phantom Zone. He didn't know, and frankly he didn't care, as long as they were gone.

Right now he was laying in bed, watching a movie that he couldn't remember the name of, Chloe's head resting against his chest, her ear over his heart. He stroked her arm unconsciously with his thumb, just holding her and not really paying attention to the movie.

As much as she had tried to, Oliver had told her she wasn't allowed to work. According to him, they had done enough in the past few days and they should take time to get the rest the other version of themselves never seemed to have gotten.

She thought she would end up going insane with the laying around, relaxing, trying to forget all the bad things that had happened in the past year thing, but Oliver made it incredibly easy to do. And it wasn't like they were doing much more than holding each other, kissing and talking. Despite how they obviously felt for one another, they had agreed to take things slow since their feelings made things pretty intense as it was and they wanted to make sure they did it the right way.

He had actually made a remark about wanting to take her out on a date before sleeping with her and she was, oddly enough, looking forward to that.

Chloe was about to fall asleep, she felt her body relaxing when, all of the sudden, she heard the downstairs door being opened with a bang, followed by a very loud "Chloe!?"

Oliver started, jerking out of his state of half-sleep at the sound of Clark's voice. He wondered how much longer it would be before the boy wonder showed up. Drawing in a breath, he pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. "Let me deal with him," he said softly.

Shaking her head, she sat up with him, rubbing her face, "not by yourself," she said just as softly, as she moved to get up. Clark had been just another subject she had been trying to avoid, she knew he would never understand what they had done, what _she_ had done and she knew this conversation wasn't going to be easy.

He drew in a breath and let it out slowly, getting up, as well and following her to the stairs, resting a hand gently at the small of her back without really thinking about it. Considering he was standing in the middle of the room a few feet away, it was hard to miss Clark's presence. Oliver couldn't help but raise his eyebrows at the long black coat, black shirt and black pants.

She took a deep breath when she saw Clark and did her best to keep walking towards him instead of glancing at Oliver like she wanted to. She could see the confusion on his face as Clark looked from her to Oliver and his protective posture behind her, but that didn't stop him, he stepped towards them and she could see the determination on his face.

"Tess Mercer is dead, Chloe and so is Zod, what is going on?"

Oliver looked at him with an unreadable expression on his face. "Have you ever once considered knocking? I mean, you know this is where Chloe stays most of the time right?" He could see had caught the other man off guard with the question.

Clark frowned at Oliver, he had assumed this was the same Oliver that had come from the future, but somehow, it didn't sound like him, "I don't have time for knocking, Oliver, those people are dead and I want to know what happened." He demanded, his eyes falling on Chloe again.

"We did what we had to do, Clark." She said as firmly as she could, holding his gaze. She knew her best friend, knew him well enough to know that even if he eventually got over it, he would never forget what she did.

"What you had to do?" he echoed. "Chloe, what you did was _murder_ someone!"

Oliver had already had enough. He stepped forward, pinning the other man with a look. "Nice of you to show up and offer your assistance a few days too late, by the way. But I guess that's your M.O. now, isn't it? A day late and a dollar short," he said evenly.

She cringed. Both at Clark's words and Oliver's reaction to them. Without thinking about it, she held on to Oliver's arm, trying to keep him from moving any closer to Clark.

"I'm aware, Clark," she told him, waiting for him to look at her before continued, "but what you're choosing to forget is that if we hadn't stopped them, millions of people would have died, haven't we learned anything from Doomsday?" She took the opportunity to step froward so she was standing between Oliver and Clark once more, "we had the opportunity to stop this early on, before innocent people go hurt."

Clark couldn't believe what he was hearing, he narrowed his eyes as she spoke, "you didn't even _try_ another solution, Chloe, you murdered them without giving them a chance," he glanced at Oliver then focused on her once more, his hands turning into fists against his sides, "and what about Tess? She was _human_."

"A human who killed Oliver," Chloe said through clenched teeth, glancing at Oliver before looking at Clark again, "she killed the other Oliver, the one from the future and if I hadn't stopped her, I have no doubt this Oliver could have been next."

"And Chloe after me. Do you even care about _that_?" Oliver questioned, narrowing his eyes at Clark. "It was self-defense, plain and simple." He stared at the other man, his gaze intense. "And giving them a chance? Really? To do what, exactly? Take over the entire planet?" Surely Clark couldn't be that naive and stupid.

All Clark could do was stare between them, he didn't want to think about the possibility of Chloe or even Oliver dying, but listening to them as they defended their actions, as they defended murder... he shook his head, "you should have called me, Chloe, I would have taken care of it."

She could see the conflict in his face and with a deep breath, she held his gaze, "I did call you, Clark, but you weren't willing to do what had to be done."

"Because you didn't want to get your hands dirty," Oliver said with a hint of bitterness. "And really, when was the last time you were there for Chloe when she needed you?" He took a step forward. "You turned your back on her, Clark, after everything she's done for you, you walked out and left her alone to deal with everything by herself. And if my future self hadn't shown up and brought Lois back, you'd still be sulking and throwing yourself a pity party instead of taking care of things that need to be done--like stopping a lunatic take over the earth. What did you think was going to happen? That we were just going to wait for you to make a move, try to befriend the guy who wanted us all dead?" He scoffed, disgust clear in his face. "I'm sure you would've got really far with that."

Frowning hard, Clark did his best not to step forward, watching the other man, he had to remain calm or he would be the one who would act irrationally, "there is _always_ a way, Oliver, regardless of what your future self told the two of you, you didn't have to _kill_ anybody, I was looking into the crystal and we could have sent them to the Phantom Zone with the help of the fortress, it didn't have to be this way," he turned to look at Chloe, sadly, "you didn't have to become this."

"I looked into the crystal too, Clark and we did break it and you're right, it worked, it got rid of all the Kandorians on Earth, but it wouldn't have worked if Zod was still alive, he was their leader and we had to eliminate him before destroying the crystal or they would be stuck here forever." Chloe said firmly but quietly, holding his gaze, "and I saw the horror, the pain in Oliver's face and if this is what I had to become to stop it from happening, so be it."

Oliver barely heard Chloe's words, he was so dumbfounded by Clark's. "Become this? Become _this_?" he echoed. "She saved the planet while you were doing what, exactly? Playing dark avenger?" His own fists clenched as his sides. "Or were you just too busy with Lois to care?" He gritted his teeth, feeling anger surge through him. He and Clark had rarely seen eye to eye, and he was pretty sure this was something they'd _never_ agree on. Frankly, he didn't care. He was tired of the other man's self-righteous, judgmental attitude. "And maybe there is another way sometimes, but considering the fact construction on the towers was going to start today, we didn't exactly have a lot of time to pace the barn floor wringing our hands."

"You did this to her," Clark narrowed his eyes more, this time not stopping himself from stepping forward, staring the other man in the eye, "you and the other version of yourself, you convinced her to do this, just because _you_ had taken a human life before... was that not enough for you, Oliver? Did you have to get _her_ hands dirty too?"

Chloe's mouth dropped at Clark's words, "you don't know what you're saying Clark so _stop_. Right now." It was her turn to step forward but this time, she was standing side by side with Oliver instead of standing between them, "I am capable of making my own decisions and I would have chosen this with or without Oliver, both or either one of them," she snapped, "in fact, they didn't want me to come at all, I was the one who insisted on coming along so if you want to point fingers, point them in the right direction."

"At yourself," Oliver said darkly. "Because if you had just been willing to actually get rid of Zod in the first place and not just hope your alien Alcatraz could contain him, none of this would have happened at all."

"Unlike you," he said, narrowing his eyes. "I'm not willing to commit murder."

"Not even to save millions of people." Oliver held his ground. "I think you're the one with mixed up priorities, Clark, but all things considered, I can't really say I'm surprised since this is how you've been since we first met."

"Don't try to justify your actions, Oliver, taking a life is _never_ right."

With a deep breath, Chloe shook her head, "we're never going to see eye to eye on this, Clark," she said, trying to keep her voice calm, "and until you can accept that this is what we did and that it's over now, I think it's better if you leave."

Clark stared at her with disbelief. "Chloe, you can't really think that killing Tess was the right thing to do."

"I think you should take her suggestion and go. Because I'll be the one asking next, and I won't be nearly as polite," Oliver said, his heart pounding heavily in his chest.

Chloe placed her arm over Oliver's and held on to it tightly, holding Clark's gaze as she did, "please, Clark."

He stared at the two of them for a moment longer, studying Chloe, trying to read her before hanging his head and vanishing with a gush of air.

"Jackass," he mumbled, his body tense. He forced himself to take a deep breath and let it out slowly, turning to look at Chloe. "I'm sorry."

Shaking her head, she slid her hand down his arm and took his hand in hers, "it was going to happen sooner or later," she said quietly, turning to face Oliver, "I knew he would never understand."

He lifted a hand to her face and kissed her forehead softly, closing his eyes for a moment. He wished there was something he could do to remove the sadness from her eyes. "He's not like us, Chloe," he whispered, sighing softly.

"I know," she squeezed his hand softly, "Clark has... he has all those powers and he works hard to remain in control of who he is," her voice was quiet, "I think he's afraid that if he loses control once, if he takes one life, he won't be able to stop himself anymore, he is so much stronger than everyone else, he's afraid of hurting one of us without meaning to."

"And you and I are just human," he said quietly. "But we do what we can and when we get a heads up--in whatever odd shape that my take--we have to take it seriously. Because we aren't willing to wait for someone else to save the day just because they have special abilities. And Clark will never understand that because he doesn't know what it's like to not have those powers."

Pursing her lips together, Chloe nodded, "he feels responsible for everything _because_ of his powers and there are some things that he will never get about being human." And she hated saying that about Clark, he made such a huge effort to fit in, but things like that, the big choices, the difficult ones, he would never be able to see them from a human point-of-view.

Oliver sighed again, wrapping his arms around her and resting his chin atop her head. "I guess I'll never understand Clark. And not just because of the whole alien-human thing."

Chloe leaned into him, wrapping her arms around him as well and kissing his shoulder softly before laying her head over the spot, "you two are very different and there are some things that it's better if you never talk about."

"You make the top of that list," he said quietly.

A soft smile appeared on her lips and she nodded, "I agree."

"I hate the way he treats you, Chloe." He let out a breath, hugging her a little tighter. "It drives me crazy."

"Shh," she said quietly, looking up at him as she rubbed her hand over his back, "we don't have to worry about that now, we'll deal with Clark when we have to."

He relaxed a little at her touch and closed his eyes. "All right," he murmured.

Chloe nodded, tiptoeing and kissing him softly before looking at him, "lets go back upstairs."

Oliver cupped her face in his hands and kissed her again, then nodded as he pulled away. He reached down and took her hand, weaving their fingers together as he guided her toward the stairs.


	14. Through a Glass, Darkly

Title: Through a Glass, Darkly  
Rated: PG-13  
Authors: [](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/profile)[**dl_greenarrow**](http://dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com/) and [](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/profile)[**chloeas**](http://chloeas.livejournal.com/)  
Spoilers: Up for and including all of Pandora from season 9, though this is very, very AU.  
Pairing: Chloe/Oliver.

[Prologue](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/366281.html) | [Chapter One](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/369460.html) | [Chapter Two](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/370747.html) | [Chapter Three](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/373001.html) | [Chapter Four](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/375666.html) | [Chapter Five](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/376740.html) | [Chapter Six](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/379343.html) | [Chapter Seven](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/379449.html) | [Chapter Eight](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/380836.html) | [Chapter Nine](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/384196.html) | [Chapter Ten](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/387539.html) | [Chapter Eleven](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/390043.html) | [Chapter Twelve](http://community.livejournal.com/chlollie/392154.html)

 

It had been six months.

Six months since Oliver, Zod and Tess had died, but also six months since there had been any kind of threat of an alien invasion on Earth. Of course, there was still crime and there was still violence but it wasn't anything they couldn't handle, in fact, between the League and the Blur, crime rates were dropping month after month.

Things with Clark were still rocky, but they also had improved. Oliver and Clark worked together when necessary, even if they kept their relationship mostly business, Chloe knew they were both making an effort to at least be sociable towards each other. As for Chloe and Clark, she helped him when he needed, be that Blur-related or with advice when it came to his new found relationship with her cousin.

All in all, things were relatively peaceful in all areas of their lives, especially when it came to their relationship.

On top of everything else that future Oliver had done, he had also opened both Chloe's and Oliver's eyes to their feelings for each other and after seeing what life could be like without one of them, they both agreed to give it a try. Six months later, they were still going strong. That night, they were actually celebrating their six month anniversary, sure it wasn't really a milestone, but they felt like it was important to at least do something about the date.

They had a solid relationship that had started in a very unconventional but very powerful way and they felt that not only for them, but for the other version of them, they had to make sure they never took it for granted.

So while they weren't doing anything too big or exchanging gifts, they were having dinner at one of Oliver's favorite restaurants in Metropolis and toasting.

"To us," she touched her glass to his and sipped on the champagne, smiling at him from across the table.

"To us," he echoed, watching her intently and taking a sip of his own drink. He reached out and covered her hand with his own, offering her a soft smile.

She rubbed her thumb over the side of his hand and watched him before looking around, "this place is really nice."

"The one in Star City's actually a little nicer," he said, keeping his eyes on her face.

"Oh?" She raised her eyebrows, "I didn't realize it was a chain."

"It's not exactly," he told her, linking his fingers with hers. "More like a three-shot deal. Metropolis, Star City and Chicago." He smiled.

"And I assume you have been to all three of them?" She asked with a smile.

"Well, it is my favorite restaurant," he admitted with a grin. "And I occasionally have to go to Chicago, so I've been to that one, too."

Chloe nodded, looking down at the menu, "and what is your favorite dish? Or do you have multiples?"

"Pretty much anything on the menu is my favorite," Oliver told her. "Everything here is really that good. But the menu in Star City has more of a variety than this one or the one in Chicago."

Cocking her head, she raised her eyebrows, watching him quietly for a moment, "are you feeling homesick?"

He was quiet for a moment. "I was just doing some thinking earlier." He gazed at her. "You hate cold weather. I'm not really fond of it myself. It never gets below 65 in Star City..."

Smiling slowly, she just kept her eyes on him, she knew there was more to this than he was telling her, "okay?"

Oliver gazed at her, giving her hand a gentle squeeze. "What would you say if I asked you to come with me to Star City on a trial basis?" His voice was quiet, his eyes hopeful.

Pursing her lips together, she squeezed his hand, "then I would tell you I'm more than willing to give it a try, it is your city after all."

He blinked, surprised. "Really?" He searched her eyes intently.

"I don't really have anything holding me to Metropolis," she told him, smiling, "and if you want to move back to Star City for a while, I think that'd be an interesting experience considering I've never lived outside of Kansas before."

A smile spread across his face. "You never cease to amaze me, you know that?" His voice was soft.

Chloe returned his smile, "I can do my work from your computer central there just as well as I can do it from here," she said with a shrug, "besides, warmer climates, living by the ocean and having a native to show me around just sounds like fun."

Oliver lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles softly. "How'd I get so lucky?" he whispered.

"You came back from the future to save me," she whispered, reaching out and touching his cheek with her fingers.

"I love you," he said quietly.

"I love you too," Chloe said just as quietly, holding his gaze, it was something she told him every chance she had, not only because she meant it, but because she felt like it was important to say it if she had the opportunity to, so she would never have to wish she had told him she loved him one last time.

Oliver kissed the palm of her hand, then slid his fingers through hers. "How much time will you need to get ready to leave?"

Pursing her lips together, she shrugged a shoulder, "as long as it takes for us to pack and for me to assure Lois I will be coming by to visit her often?"

"Anytime you want to visit, I'll fly you back," he promised. "Or I'll fly Lois to you."

"Oh, I know that," she told him, squeezing his hand, "I'm just pretty sure she won't be as easy to convince. Lois doesn't deal with changes very well, but we'll figure it out."

"We will," Oliver agreed, a soft smile on his face. Because they always figured things out--together. He kissed her hand once more. "Because it's us."

Reaching over, she cupped his face in her free hand and leaned forward, kissing him softly, "it's just us." She said with a smile.

Just how it was supposed to be.


End file.
